That movie is also relevant only to the direction of rotation Orientation freely available transmission "Inception drive"

Generally speaking, the gear mechanism of automobiles and bicycles is usually to increase or decrease the rotation speed in one direction, but by using a special mechanism it is possible not only to adjust the rotation speed steplessly but also to rotate Gear mechanism that stops and turns the rotating direction itself in reverseInception Drive"Has been developed. This mechanism combines the V belt and the variable pulley in a special way, and it is expected to be mainly used as a technology for realizing a highly efficient power source in the robot technology field.

Inception Drive: A Compact, Infinitely Variable Transmission for Robotics - IEEE Spectrum
https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/inception-drive-a-compact-infinitely-variable-transmission-for-robotics

A prototype of Inception Drive is this. The semitransparent outer case also serves as a variable type groove (outer pulley), in which the white special V-belt in which the circumference is visible, and the inner pulley are arranged in it Construction. It is not shown in this picture, but by changing the width of the inner pulley and the outer pulley by changing the width of the inner pulley and the outer pulley which entered from the input side on the far side, turning the output side rotation forward and stopping , You can switch freely with the reverse.


A diagram showing the internal structure is. It is a difficult part to understand this mechanism that the force can not be transmitted from the right to the left using the arrow like the transmission mechanism of the car, but I will explain as easily as possible. Rotation from the input shaft (green) first rotates eccentric cams deviated from the center of the shaft. Then, to rotate the inner pulley touching the eccentric cam (purple), of course the inner pulley receives eccentric motion inside the device under the movement of the eccentric cam at this time. Eccentrically moving inner pulleys create a force to push the V-shaped drive belt (red) against the outer pulley (beige). At this time, the gear ratio is determined by the width of the groove of the inner pulley and the outer pulley. And although this is a complex and most important place,The rotation difference caused by the gear ratio determines the rotation direction and speed of the inner pulleyThe principle is that the inner pulley is rotated and this rotation is taken out using the output shaft (blue).


What matters here is "The outer pulley is fixed"And that"The width of the grooves of the outer pulley and the inner pulley can be changed, and the change is synchronizedIt is in the point that it is. Here's a nice approach when you realize that "This is something like a trochoid gear?" The trochoid gear is a mechanism to take out the gear ratio resulting from the difference in the fraction of the inner and outer gears as a rotation, but the Inception Drive can change the gear ratio freely by using the V-belt, It is a mechanism that makes it possible to reverse and reverse. In other words, it is a mechanism that combines a belt type CVT and a trochoid gear.

In the following movies,SRI InternationalAlexander Klembaum who developed the Inception Drive as a researcher of Mr. Alexander explained the principle.

Inception Drive: A Compact, Infinitely Variable Transmission for Robotics - YouTube


Mr. Klembaum has a prototype of Inception Drive. In the case, the inner pulley and the drive belt are moving smoothly, and the output shaft at the fingertip is rotating counterclockwise.


Then, turning the case tightly to change the gear ratio, the rotation of the output shaft stopped and then it began to rotate in the opposite clockwise direction. At this time, the input side motor has been running at the same speed all the time. In other words, the Inception Drive can control the rotation of the output shaft freely while keeping the input rotation constant.


That's the biggest mystery "Why can we reverse the direction of rotation?" This can be explained by the following two pulleys of the same diameter and the mechanism of the belt connecting them.


If you rotate one of the two pulleys with the same effective radius, you can easily imagine rotating the other at the same speed. At this time, one pulley (lower side)Fixed stateBy turning the other pulley on the goggle, you can see that the arrows written on the two pulleys always point in the same direction. In other words, the Inception Drive willRotation stopIt is a mechanism to take out as a state of.


At this time, the gear ratio of the two pulleys is "1: 1". The basis of this state, changing the effective radius of both pulleys, a gear ratio "1: 2" and the inverted "2: 1" and by changing, allows to switch the rotation of the output shaft in forward and reverse I am doing. In Inception drive, by placing the two pulleys on the same axis, we have succeeded to a very compact device.


In the next three figures, three states of "forward rotation", "stop" and "reverse rotation" are shown. First of all, "Forward rotation" shows that the inner pulley is the narrowest, and the outer pulley is the widest state. In other words, the state that the inner diameter is the maximum and the outer diameter is the minimum.


In the state of "stop" or "geared neutral" (gear connected but neutral), the width of both pulleys is in the intermediate state.


And when it is "reversal", the inner pulley is the widest and the outer pulley is the narrowest.


This mechanism is not necessarily new,Infinitely variable gear ratio transmission"Gear boxes are also being developed, and in 1999 NissanExtroid CVTAs Y34 type Cedric and Gloria, and V35 type Skyline 350 GT - 8, they are commercially available. As a highly efficient gearbox at that time it was extremely noteworthy extraroid CVT, but the price was higher than ordinary CVT, due to complicated mechanism there were many failures and repair costs were also very high , I am retiring from the line as soon as possible.

The Inception Drive realizes compactness by using a transmission mechanism arranged coaxially without using such complicated mechanism. Although it can be said in either forward or reverse direction, the deceleration rate is so high that it is not suitable for automobile transmissions, and SPI expects a role as a transmission mechanism of a motor that drives industrial robots It is said that. This means that the motor is operated steadily at the most efficient rotation speed, and by controlling the rotation of the output by the Inception Drive, energy efficient driving is possible. The future task will be verification by prototypes at the point of durability when a heavy load is applied and to what extent the actual efficiency is realized.

Its naming that would be the most concerned (?), But as its predictions, the name is named for the movie "Inception" where Leonardo DiCaprio and Watanabe Ken co-starred. Appearing during the work, the ground is turned up and the scene becomes a cylinder like a space colony and the structure of the two nesting pulleys are similar, so it seems that the name is attached is.