Cycloidal Adaptive Stabilizer Bar for High Torque in Compact Packaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing adaptive stabilizer bars for vehicle suspensions are large and costly, primarily due to the need for significant actuators to handle high torsional loads, making them unsuitable for a wide range of vehicles, including electric vehicles, without compromising performance or reliability.
Innovation Solution
The adaptive stabilizer bar employs a cycloidal drive mechanism with a cam drive gear, eccentric cams, cycloidal gears, and a ring gear, allowing small electric motors to generate high torque and reduce size, featuring a compact gearbox housing and self-contained components for efficient torque transmission between divided torsion bar halves.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Force
If larger actuators (electric motors or hydraulic motors) are used to handle high torsional loads, then the stabilizer bar can maintain vehicle body level during turns, but the size and cost of the system increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
A cycloidal drive mechanism is introduced as an intermediary between the electric motor and the stabilizer bar. This mechanism includes a cycloidal gear with lobes that engages with a ring gear, providing mechanical advantage and torque multiplication. The cycloidal drive converts the motor's rotational motion into oscillating motion of the stabilizer bar, enabling small motors to generate high torsional loads through the gear ratio and mechanical leverage of the cycloidal geometry
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the mechanical parameters of the stabilizer bar by rotating it about its longitudinal axis using the cycloidal drive. By adjusting the rotation angle of the stabilizer bar relative to the vehicle body, the system varies the effective torsional stiffness and load distribution, allowing the motor to operate within optimal parameters while still handling high torsional demands through geometric transformation
2Adaptability or versatility
If traditional adaptive stabilizer bar systems are implemented, then real-time torsional stiffness control is achieved, but the system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and eliminates complex components from traditional adaptive stabilizer bar systems. Instead of using sophisticated actuators with multiple joints and control mechanisms, the system uses a simplified cycloidal drive mechanism with a single electric motor. The cycloidal geometry inherently provides the necessary motion transformation and mechanical advantage, removing the need for complex linkages, sensors, and control algorithms required in conventional systems
Solution Approach 2:
The cycloidal drive mechanism is self-contained and self-regulating. The cycloidal gear's lobes automatically engage and disengage with the ring gear based on the motor's rotation, creating oscillating motion without requiring additional control mechanisms. The mechanical advantage is inherent in the gear geometry itself, eliminating the need for electronic control systems to calculate and adjust gear ratios dynamically
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design enables the use of smaller electric motors to achieve high torsional stiffness, reducing size and cost while maintaining performance and reliability across various vehicle types, including electric vehicles.
Implementation Method 1
The cycloidal gear assembly provides a significant mechanical advantage, allowing relatively small electric motors to be used
Implementation Method 2
The cycloidal drive includes a cam drive gear, an input shaft having first and second eccentric cams, first and second cycloidal gears that oscillate by operation of the eccentric cams, and a ring gear surrounding at least one of the first and second cycloidal gears
Implementation Method 3
The first cam engages the first cycloidal gear, and the second cam engages the second cycloidal gear. The second cam is axially offset from the first cam and 180-degrees of out phase from the first cam
Implementation Method 4
The first cycloidal gear oscillates 180-degrees out of phase from the second cycloidal gear to compensate for unbalanced forces caused by rotation of the second cycloidal gear
Implementation Method 5
The cycloidal drive also includes a plurality of rollers that are sandwiched between the second cycloidal gear and an output gear
Data Source
AI summary
An improved adaptive stabilizer bar is provided. The stabilizer bar includes a cycloidal drive between first and second portions of a divided torsion bar. The cycloidal drive includes a cycloidal gear assembly that provides a significant mechanical advantage, allowing relatively small electric motors to be used. In addition, the cycloidal gear assembly has a relatively small physical footprint, particularly when compared to a planetary gear assembly, for example.