Patent ID: 7708665

Claim:
A torque biasing unit for a motor vehicle and having an input, two outputs, and therebetween an epicyclic differential module adapted to distribute torque from the input to the outputs, the unit further comprising a gear module and a control module, said gear module comprising epicyclic gear trains side by side and having a common planet carrier, the epicyclic differential module having a planet carrier, the gear module being operatively connected to the planet carrier of said epicyclic differential module, and said control module being adapted to increase and decrease the speed of the planet carrier of said gear module to bias the differential module to provide more torque to one of said outputs than to the other, wherein said differential module, gear module and control module have a common axis of rotation, and are arranged in axial series with the gear module centermost, said epicyclic differential module further comprising an annulus connected to said input and a sun connected to one of said outputs, said planet carrier of the epicyclic differential module being connected to the other of said outputs, said planet carrier of said epicyclic differential module having double planets operative in series between the annulus and sun of said epicyclic differential module, and wherein said gear module comprises first and second epicyclic gear trains side by side and having first and second suns joined for rotation in common, a first annulus of the gear module being connected to the planet carrier of said differential module, and a second annulus of the gear module being connected to one of said outputs.