The planetary gear set is the heart of our design. As shown in Figure 3, the planetary system is made out of a sun gear, 4 planetary gears, and an inner and outer ring gear.
Figure 3: Planetary Gear Assembly
The mechanism consists of three sets of planetary systems represented in blue in the following virtual assembly. The torque limiter is represented in green and protects ours system from gusts of wind that can damage the gears.
Figure 4: ProE Assembly
The turning of the kite
can be done by turning the two front planetary set in the same direction.
Turning them in opposite direction and allowing rotation of the third
set will perform the in/out function. As shown in the assembly, the third
planetary set is connected to the other two set through the use of a pinion
gear. The pinion gear is represented in red. When the pitch motor rotates
the third planetary set, the planetary gears of the two front planetary
sets allows for rotation of outer ring gears while keeping the sun gear
motionless. The front spools are therefore stationary, allowing for the
pitch line to be the only one moving. The pitch is used to change the
angle of attack in relation to the wind. This is very useful to obtain
optimum properties and change the speed of the yacht.
The following set of pictures compares our virtual model to the completed mechanism. The motor used for the turning of the kite also appears in both figures.
Figure 5: Final System