ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,297,892, issued on May 13, was assigned to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Mass.).
"Tapered differential planetary drive" was invented by Jake Robert Reed (Cambridge, Mass.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A planetary drive includes static and freely rotating outer rings having different diameters, sun gear, and multiple planet gears disposed around the sun so that their axis of rotation is rotated relative to the drive axis, causing each planet to contact each ring at a point along its length. The sun contacts each planet at a point between its contact points with the rings, such that the force at the contact points is e...