Patent ID: 8747267

Claim:
A continuously variable transmission system comprising: a gear set comprising one or more sun gears, one or more planetary gears, a ring gear, and a planetary gear carrier arm on which the one or more planetary gears are mounted for rotational movement, the one or more sun gears and the one or more planetary gears are mounted for rotational engagement and movement with respect to each other, the ring gear and the one or more planetary gears are mounted for rotational engagement and movement with respect to each other, at least one of the one or more sun gears and the planetary gear carrier arm couples to an input shaft providing a first input to the one or more planetary gears and the ring gear directly couples to an output shaft directly coupled to a load to receive feedback; and a rotary coupling unit having an input rotationally coupled to the at least one of the one or more sun gears and the planetary gear carrier arm and an output that rotationally couples to the output shaft, where a portion of rotational energy of the output shaft is transferred as a second input to the one or more planetary gears at the ring gear.