A COMPARATIVE CALCULATION OF CYCLOID DRIVE EFFICIENCY

Abstract

Determining cycloid drive efficiency is a very complex task that in the most cases requires theoretical analysis, numerical calculation, computational simulations and experimental research. The paper aims to compare the results obtained based on two so far the most recognized and acceptable theoretical models (Malhotra model and Kudryavtsev model). On the one hand, the presented models are very similar (they both take into account the power losses due to friction on the central gear rollers, output rollers and in the cycloid gear bearings). They differ in the methodology of power losses calculation and in the number of contacts between certain cycloid drive elements that are taken into account. The computational simulation was performed in the MATLAB software package on specific examples of classical single-stage cycloid drives.