System and method of differentiating torque between wheels of a vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8944950-B2
Application number	US-201213633185-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 2, 2012
Priority date	Apr 18, 2012
Publication date	Feb 3, 2015
Grant date	Feb 3, 2015

Abstract

An electric drive unit (EDU) is configured for driving a first and second wheel of a vehicle. The EDU includes a rotor, a stator, a first planetary gear set, a second planetary gear set, and a pair of engagement mechanisms. The first planetary gear set is operatively connected to the rotor and rotates about the drive axis in response to rotation of the rotor to transmit torque to the first wheel. The second planetary gear set is operatively connected to the rotor and rotates about the drive axis in response to rotation of the rotor to transmit torque to the second wheel. Rotation of the rotor causes each of the planetary gear sets to rotate about the drive axis. Each engagement mechanism is selectively engages a respective one of the planetary gear sets to vary the torque transmitted to the respective wheel.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electric drive unit configured for driving a first wheel and a second wheel of a vehicle, the electric drive unit comprising:
a rotor;
a stator radially surrounding the rotor about a drive axis;
wherein the rotor rotates about the drive axis, relative to the stator;
a first planetary gear set operatively connected to the rotor and rotatable about the drive axis in response to rotation of the rotor about the drive axis to transmit torque to the…

Assignees

• Gm Global Tech Operations Inc

Inventors

• Holmes Alan G

Classifications

• B60K2001/001

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B60W10/08

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B60W2720/406

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• F16H2048/368

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• B60Y2300/82

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic