A New Technique Based on Loops to Investigate Displacement Isomorphism in Planetary Gear Trains

Abstract

The most important step in the structural synthesis of planetary gear trains (PGTs) requires the identification of isomorphism (rotational as well as displacement) between the graphs which represent the kinematic structure of planetary gear train. Previously used methods for identifying graph isomorphism yielded incorrect results. Literature review in this area shows there is inconsistency in results from six link, one degree-of-freedom onwards. The purpose of this paper is to present an efficient methodology through the use of Loop concept and Hamming number concept to detect displacement and rotational isomorphism in PGTs in an unambiguous way. New invariants for rotational graphs and displacement graphs called geared chain hamming strings and geared chain loop hamming strings are developed respectively to identify rotational and displacement isomorphism. This paper also presents a procedure to redraw conventional graph representation that not only clarifies the kinematic structure of a PGT but also averts the problem of pseudo isomorphism. Finally a thorough analysis of existing methods is carried out using the proposed technique and the results in the category of six links one degree-of-freedom are established and an Atlas comprises of graph representations in conventional form as well as in new form is presented.