Infinitely variable transmission with orbital pulleys

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to propose an infinite variable transmission with orbital pulleys, which consists of two parallel transmission systems. The system comprises a planetary gear set and a continuously variable transmission. The principle of operation of the infinite variable transmission proposed in this article is based on the actuation of one half-sided pulley, which has a translational movement in a direction, and the same amount of movement is reproduced by the other half-sided orbital pulley in reverse to secure that the length of the belt remains constant. The fixed constant horizon enables the infinite variable transmission to change the transmission ratio from negative values to positive passing through zero in a continuous manner without using a clutch or interrupting the system. The dynamic model and prototype of the infinite variable transmission with orbital pulleys are developed for designing, controlling, and validating purposes. The model is obtained using the Euler–Lagrange methodology, and it is experimentally validated by comparing the proposed model with the experimental measures. The infinite variable transmission with orbital pulleys is controlled under different conditions; the experimental results show that the proposed design of infinite variable transmission provides robustness to maintain constant speeds at the output to changes at the input velocity.