Study and Design Optimization of Novel Harmonic Drive

Harmonic drive (HD) is a key component in automatic and robotics industry. This research project is athree-year project. The goal is to improve the existing double-circular tooth profile HD. In the first year, aflexspline (FS) with a novel tooth profile will be investigated, and the conjugate tooth profile of circularspline (CS) will be derived. Optimization of the novel HD design will be implemented by connecting theself-developed mesh generation program, two-dimensional finite element analysis (FEA) and optimizationsolver. Then three-dimensional FEA of the optimum HD will be conducted to estimate its characteristics,including torsional stiffness, engaged area of teeth, and stress distribution. In the second year,three-dimensional tooth profiles of the FS and CS with varied shift-coefficient will be derived by consideringthe corning effect inducing by inserting the elliptical wave generator into the FS. The optimum design of theshell shape parameters at the intersection of FS’s boss and diaphragm will be studied by connecting the FEAand optimization solver, leaded to improved fatigue life of the FS.The profiles of shaper and power skiving tool which are applied to generate the inner teeth of the CSwill be studied in the third year. Besides, the re-grindable tool surface designs with decreasingshifted-coefficient will be derived, and the profiles of grinding wheels which are used to manufacturing theshaper and power skiving tool will be developed respectively. Meanwhile, the design, manufacturing,assembly and testing of a HD tester will also be conducted in the first two year. The performance of theself-designed HD and off-the shelf HD will be tested on the HD tester. The experimental results will also becompared with those from FEA simulation.The methodology and process of computer-aided optimization of novel HD design and HDexperiments are believed to be beneficial for improving the design and manufacturing ability for domesticindustry.