A Method for the Identification of Displacement Isomorphism of Planetary Gear Trains
Abstract The purpose of this paper is to present an efficient method for the identification of the displacement isomorphism of planetary gear trains. For every planetary gear train, the kinematic structure is characterized by its displacement graph and rotation graph. A mathematical representation, called the Structural Code, is introduced to represent the topological structure of the displacement graph and rotation graph of a planetary gear train. Based on the Structural Codes of displacement graphs and rotation graphs, the linear and rotational displacement isomorphism of planetary gear trains can be identified in an unambiguous way. Finally, an interactive computer program is developed for the automatic identification of the displacement isomorphism of planetary gear trains.