Piezo-electric drive arrangement for a harmonic drive transmission

摘要

An apparatus and a method of rotatively empowering a harmonic drive transmission. The steps of the method include arranging a primary and a secondary cup-shaped flexspline co-axially within a rotatable rigid circular spline, and forming pivotable fingers in the secondary flexspline, biasing radially outwardly the pivotable fingers so as to contact and bias radially outwardly the primary flexspline in a sequential manner. The array of teeth between the primary flexspline and the circular spline engage one another to effect relative rotation therebetween. An array of piezo-electric elements is arranged in contact with the secondary flexspline and an adjacent non-rotating component. An electric current is sequenced through the piezo-electric elements to effect a dimensional change therein, thus to effect the biasing of the primary flexspline by the secondary flexspline.