Patent ID: 7217220

Claim:
A toric-drive transmission comprising: a drive disk for receiving a power input; a driven disk for transmitting a power output; a roller device having a roller displaceably mounted between the drive disk and the driven disk, the roller having three rotational degrees of freedom, a first one of the rotational degrees of freedom for transmitting motion from the drive disk to the driven disk so as to convert the power input to the power output, a second one of the rotational degrees of freedom for varying a ratio of the power output to the power input as a function of an orientation of the roller along the second one of the rotational degrees of freedom, and a third one of the rotational degrees of freedom for initiating a rotation of the roller about the second one of the rotational degrees of freedom; and a controller system having two sleeves enclosing the roller and operatively connected to the roller device for changing the orientation of the roller in the second one of the rotational degrees of freedom by actuating a displacement of the roller in the third one of the rotational degrees of freedom, a first one of the sleeves being actuatable for displacing the roller along the third one of the rotational degrees of freedom from a first orientation to a second orientation, and a second one of the sleeves being actuatable for displacing the roller along the second one of the degrees of freedom as a function of the second orientation along the third one of the rotational degrees of freedom.