Anyone know how they are doing this?Torque transfer device link

[Edited on 30-8-04 by mangogrooveworkshop]

If, as the article says, it's based on the system used in the Honda Prelude, then it's quite clever.

A differential can be used as an adding device (and was in mechanical analogue computers). That means that the sum of the revs on the two pinion shafts is output on the crown wheel. In a car, this allows one wheel to speed up and one to slow down but still add to the same input revs.

If one input shaft turns in the opposite direction to the other but at the same speed, the output at the crown wheel is nil. What the Honda system does is connect up a second diff, in parallel with the existing one, with the pinion shafts in counter rotation. Then, an electric motor is used to drive the crown wheel of this second diff one way or the other. This forces torque transfer one way or the other across the primary diff as the system tries to balance itself. It bears some relationship to the way a tank or bulldozer is steered.

Does that help? The above is all from memory and first principles so may (will?) contain errors. I Googled for ATTS (Automatic Torque Transfer System) but couldn't find any useful web links that explained the system any better. Somewhere at home in my piling system I have a magazine article from when the Prelude with ATTS was released but god knows how long it would take me to find it. One day I'd love to have all of my old magazines and books scanned and indexed so I can look them up easily. Shouldn't need more than a few Terabytes of disk We just installed another 35Tb in our disk farm here at work - wonder if they'd notice some missing


Dominic

THanks gecko Thats what i suspected!

It sounds like the fiddle brakes used on trials cars brought more up to date, like ABS on individual wheels at the front. As Gecko says similar to a skid steer on a digger or tractor but highly refined.