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A harmonic drive model considering geometry and internal interaction

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DOI: 10.1177/0954406215621097

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Original Article

Proc IMechE Part C:

J Mechanical Engineering Science
A harmonic drive model considering 0(0) 1–16
! IMechE 2015

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DOI: 10.1177/0954406215621097
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Chuang Zou1, Tao Tao1,2, Gedong Jiang1,2, Xuesong Mei1,2 and

Junhui Wu1

Abstract
A new harmonic drive model considering the geometry, internal interactions and assembly error of key parts is proposed
in this paper. In this model, a single tooth pair is used to represent the transmission mechanism of harmonic drive. The
meshing stiffness between the flexspline and the circular spline, the torsional stiffness of the flexspline cylinder, and the
radial stiffness of the thin-walled ball bearing are included and formulated. The kinematic error is fitted using a low-
velocity test, and its generating mechanism is analysed. The friction of the harmonic drive is formulated at the tooth
meshing section and at the ball bearing, where its parameters are identified based on experimental results. Based on the
new model, velocity step simulations are conducted. For comparison, velocity step experiments at eight different
velocities from 60 to 3000 r/min are performed, and the simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental
results. The new model reveals the dynamic behaviour of the harmonic drive system; therefore, it will be useful for the
dynamic design and precision control of harmonic drive systems.

Keywords
Harmonic drive, transmission mechanism, kinematic error, stiffness, friction torque

Date received: 10 November 2014; accepted: 12 November 2015

Introduction knowledge to change their design and process param-

The concept of harmonic drive was presented in 1955
for the development of space technology.1 Because of
its large transmission ratio, small backlash and com-
pact size, harmonic drive systems have been gradually
applied in various types of manufacturing equipment
and measuring devices such as industrial robots,
machine tools, optical scanners and laser mirror
positioning mechanisms. Because the harmonic drive
is the key transmission component of the above elec-
tromechanical systems, its performance may have a
great impact on the systems’ manufacturing or mea-
suring accuracies. Both Good et al.2 and Hidaka
et al.3 noticed the effect of the harmonic drive attri-
butes on system dynamics early in 1985. Tuttle4 found
various problematic dynamic behaviours such as kine-
matic inaccuracies, energy dissipation and significant
or unpredictable jumps in the operating velocity of the
harmonic drive. To address these problematic
dynamic behaviours, it is essential to thoroughly
understand the mechanism of harmonic drive and to
recognise the factors that affect its performance.
Various models have been proposed to explain the
harmonic drive mechanism,4–17 but these models are
developed based on various macroscopic properties,
such as total stiffness and total friction torque, and do
not provide designers and manufacturers with the
eters to improve the performance of their systems.
To offer a theoretical basis for the dynamic design
of a harmonic drive system, it is necessary to construct
a harmonic drive model that can consider the geom-
etry and the interactions of the internal parts and can
elucidate the motion and force transmission process.
As shown in Figure 1, a harmonic drive system is
composed of three key components: a wave generator,
a flexspline with outer teeth and a circular spline with
inner teeth. The wave generator is an assembly of a
thin-walled ball bearing fitted onto the periphery of
an elliptical cam. Different configurations of these
three components could play different roles in trans-
mission, including as a reducer, speed increaser and
differential. In most circumstances, a harmonic drive
is used as a reducer in which the wave generator is
1
School of Mechanical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, P.R.
China
2
State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xi’an
Jiaotong University, Xi’an, P.R. China
Corresponding author:
Gedong Jiang, State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems
Engineering, West Fifth Building, No.99, Yanxiang Road, Yanta District,
Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, P.R. China.
Email: gdjiang@yeah.net

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2 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)
Figure 1. Components of a harmonic drive system.
splined to the motor as the input of transmission, the
flexspline is coupled to other successive actuator as
the output, and the circular spline is fixed to
the ground. When a reducer configuration is used,
the periodic elastic deformation of the flexspline
makes the flexspline rotate in an opposite direction
under the engagement between the teeth of the flexs-
pline and circular spline. There are two or three fewer
teeth on the flexspline compared with those on the
circular spline; therefore, when the wave generator
(input) performs one revolution, the flexspline
(output) only rotates by an angle corresponding to
two or three teeth. Thus, a harmonic drive system
realises transmission with a large single-stage reduc-
tion ratio, ranging from 30:1 to 320:1.
Because harmonic drive is a type of friction gearing
composed of flexible elements and an assembly of
three components, its compliance, friction and kine-
matic error are the main attributes responsible for its
transmission performance gradation. These attributes
have been studied extensively over the last twenty
years.
Ghorbel5 and Zhu6 modelled the compliance as an
integrated stiffness coefficient with known data. Tuttle
et al.4 performed specific measurements of the com-
pliance and modelled it through the fitting of an
experimental curve. Taghirad et al.7 and Dhaouadi
et al.8 expressed the compliance as an empirical poly-
nomial and identified the coefficients by least-square
estimation. However, the relation between the
stiffness and the structural parameters was rarely dis-
cussed in their work. Rheaume9 presented a finite-
element model of a harmonic drive and reproduced
the behaviour of the integrated torsional stiffness but
did not discuss the dynamic performance of the
harmonic drive.
Most researchers4,5,10,11 have modelled the
kinematic error using experimental data. Because
kinematic error is caused by manufacturing or assem-
bly error, it must be obtained through careful experi-
mentation at low, uniform driving velocities. Only
Ghorbel5 explained the cause of kinematic errors,
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but the representation of kinematic error in the har-
monic drive model was not analysed in detail.
Tuttle4 and Preissner10 modelled the friction in a
harmonic drive using various empirical fits, such as
fits using power or trigonometric functions with respect
to the operation velocity, whereas other research-
ers5,12–15 modelled the friction using the theories of
Coulomb friction, viscous damping, the Stribeck
effect and structural damping. Tjahjowidodo16 mod-
elled the friction by using a parallel connection of
Maxwell-slip elements. When addressing friction’s rep-
resentation in the harmonic drive model, most
researchers considered it as a total torque or force.
From the viewpoint of the harmonic drive operation,
the thin-walled ball bearing and tooth pairs are two
different sources of friction that should be modelled
separately.
Most of the researchers mentioned above predicted
the dynamic performance of the harmonic drive for
the purpose of control system design, but were not
concerned with the internal components and the inter-
actions between them. They described the harmonic
drive mechanism as a grey or black box model with
several dynamic characteristics; their harmonic drive
models are all based on empirical equations or fitting
expressions of experimental data. Because these
models do not consider the geometric parameters of
the harmonic drive system, they are seriously influ-
enced by the experimental results used in the empirical
fits, and they cannot be used to improve the harmonic
drive dynamic performance through adjustments in
the design and manufacturing process. Therefore, it
is necessary to select a modelling method that con-
siders the geometric parameters and the internal inter-
actions of the system.
On the modelling of a harmonic drive, the work of
Tuttle must be mentioned. He established a single
tooth pair model4 that facilitates an understanding
and analysis of the transmission mechanism of the
harmonic drive, but only the compliance between
the wave generator and flexspline and the friction at
the meshing zone are included as the total compliance
and total friction in his model. Huimin Dong pre-
sented research on the dynamic simulation of har-
monic gear drives considering tooth parameters
using FEM,17 but only the flexspline stress distribu-
tion and the load characteristics of the teeth were
analysed.
In summary, a model that can help one to under-
stand the motion and force transmissions of a har-
monic drive is clearly necessary. To establish such a
complex model that considers the geometry and inter-
nal interactions, many aspects need to be considered:
(a) the compliances of the three key components of
the harmonic drive must be modelled individually;
(b) manufacturing or assembly error that induce the
kinematic error must be included;
Zou et al.
Figure 2. Operation of the harmonic drive. ni , input rotational velocity; no , output rotational velocity.
(c) the friction of the thin-walled ball bearing and
tooth pairs must be included;
(d) geometric parameters of the harmonic drive
system must be considered;
(e) the model must not be difficult to solve.
Considering the above aspects, a new model for the
interpretation and prediction of harmonic drive
behaviour will be investigated in this paper. This
paper will be organised as follows. In the following
section, the transmission mechanism of a harmonic
drive is analysed through an actual case, a model con-
sidering the geometry and internal interactions is
established, and the calculation methods of the key
attributes in the model are proposed. In the Test
experiment and attribute evaluation section, a testing
apparatus is set up, the attributes of this specific
system are calculated, and the experimental data are
analysed to verify or identify the model’s key attri-
butes for a high precision prediction. In the
Verification and discussion of model performance sec-
tion, the mathematical equations of the model are
solved, the theoretical response are predicted and
compared with the experimental response, and the
model performance is discussed. In the last section,
some conclusions are given.
Harmonic drive model formulation
Transmission mechanism of the harmonic drive
Figure 2 shows a picture of the actual operation of the
harmonic drive, and the partial enlargements clarify
the deformation of the flexspline and the change in the
teeth engagement condition. Note that when the har-
monic drive is in operation, the elliptical cam rotates
and forces the round flexspline to deform elliptically
through the thin-walled ball bearing to push the outer
teeth near the major axis of the flexspline into the
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3
inner teeth on the round rigid circular spline. As a
result of the meshing effect, the teeth on the flexspline
cause it to rotate in the opposite direction of the input
motion. There are three types of engagement condi-
tions in the harmonic drive: engaging out, engaging
into and disengagement.
The translational model of the harmonic drive
system shown in Figure 3 was established to explain
the transmission mechanism: The input shaft drives
the rigid elliptical cam to the right and forces the
thin-walled flexspline to deform in the vertical direc-
tion using the thin-walled bearing, and the interaction
between the ‘engaging into’ tooth pairs then pushes
the flexspline to move to the left. With the elliptical
cam in motion, the ‘disengagement’ tooth pairs will
become the ‘engaging into’ teeth, and the ‘engaging
out’ tooth pairs will gradually become uncoupled. It is
therefore possible to substitute the engagement
between the ‘engaging into’ tooth pairs for the com-
plete gearing role of the harmonic drive. The single
tooth pair model of a harmonic drive proposed by
Tuttle4 is a good explanation of the harmonic drive
transmission mechanism. However, in this model, the
stiffness was modelled only between the wave gener-
ator and the flexspline, and the friction was only mod-
elled at the meshing zone. To fully understand the
harmonic drive dynamic behaviour, an improved
single tooth pair model considering the geometry
effect (geometric parameters and kinematic error)
and the internal interactions (elasticity and friction
among all the parts of the harmonic drive) was
implemented.
An improved single tooth pair model of a
harmonic drive
The geometric model of a real harmonic drive is
shown in Figure 4(a), which shows the transmission
attributes of a harmonic drive. According to the
4 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

Figure 3. Schematic diagram of the harmonic transmission mechanism. ni , input rotational velocity; no , output rotational velocity; vi ,
elliptical cam tangential velocity; vo , flexspline tangential velocity.

geometric model, an improved single tooth pair model The ordinary differential equations for the har-
considering the kinematic error and the elastic monic drive model considering the geometry and
deformation and friction among all the parts is internal interactions can be written as
shown in Figure 4(b). 8
In Figure 4(b), the input axis rotation angle i >
> x1 ¼ i rg tan n
>
>
drives the wedge that is substituting for the elliptical >
> Kb ðx1  x2 þ eÞ þ Cb ðx_ 1  x_ 2 þ eÞ
_
>
>
cam to move and produces the radial motion x1 of the >
> 2
>
> ¼ Jg x€ 2 =rg þ Km ðx2 sin t  y1 cos t Þ sin t
bearing inner circle. The flexspline tooth that repre- >
>
< þFfm cos t
sents all the ‘engaging into’ teeth is pushed in a radial
motion x2 , and the meshing effect produces the tan- >
> Km ðx2 sin t  y1 cos t Þ cos t
>
>
>
> 2 2
gential motion y1 of the flexspline teeth. The rotation > ¼ Jg y€ 1 =rg þ Kt ðy1  y2 Þ=rg þ Ffb þ Ffm sin t
>
of the flexspline drives the tangential motion y2 of the >
>
>
> Kt ðy1  y2 Þ=r2g ¼ Jo y€ 2 =r2g
>
>
output axis, where Kb and Cb denote the radial :
o ¼ y2 =rg
stiffness and damping of the thin-walled ball bearing,
respectively; e is the cyclic pattern of the eccentric ð2Þ
error e0 that leads to the kinematic error; Ffb and The equations describe the internal motion and
Ffm are friction caused by the thin-walled ball bear- force constraints of the harmonic drive. If attributes
ing and teeth meshing, respectively; Km is the gear such as friction, compliance, damping and eccentric
mesh stiffness; Jg is the inertia of the flexspline; rg is error have been calculated and incorporated into this
the radius of the flexspline neutral layer; t is the model, the response of the output axis for a given
gear tooth angle; Jo is the equivalent inertia of the input rotation angle will be determined. The calcula-
output axis; Kt is the torsional stiffness of the flex- tion method used to obtain these attributes will be
spline cylinder; and o is the rotation angle of the discussed in the following three sections.
output axis.
The angle n of the wedge representing the elliptical
cam ensures that in the absence of any friction, com-
Modelling compliance in the harmonic drive
pliance or kinematic error, the harmonic drive model Because the compliance in the harmonic drive will
is simply an ideal representation composed only of the produce transmission inaccuracies5 and exhibit sub-
gear reduction and gear tooth angle. This angle can be stantial vibrations,4 it is a critical factor that must
represented as4 be recognised in the dynamic model. However, in
  past research, only an integrated stiffness has been
1 considered rather than the stiffness of every compo-
n ¼ arctan ð1Þ
N tanðt Þ nent in the harmonic drive, preventing the designer
from determining how the structural parameters and
where N is the gear ratio of the harmonic drive. material of each component affect the dynamic

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Zou et al.
Figure 4. Harmonic drive model considering geometry and
internal interactions. (a) Geometric model of the harmonic
drive and (b) improved single tooth pair model.
behaviour of the harmonic drive. Three different stiff-
ness attributes were therefore calculated and incorpo-
rated into the harmonic drive model in our research:
the meshing stiffness between the teeth of the flexs-
pline and circular spline Km , the torsional stiffness
of the flexspline cylinder Kt and the radial stiffness
of the thin-walled ball bearing Kb . The radial damping
Cb of the thin-walled ball bearing is also important in
terms of the performance of the harmonic drive model
and will be discussed in this section.
Meshing stiffness. A harmonic drive is a type of gearing
with dozens of tooth pairs engaged simultaneously.
The meshing stiffness of the equivalent single tooth
pair Km is determined by the number of ‘engaging
into’ teeth ZR and the stiffness of one practical
tooth pair Kms as follows
Km ¼ ZR Kms
When the harmonic drive is in operation, the flexs-
pline deforms approximately in the style of the ellip-
tical cam; therefore, the half of the teeth in the
intersection area between the reference circle of the
circular spline and the elliptical reference circle of
the flexspline are considered as the ‘engaging into’
teeth, as shown in Figure 5.
Downloaded from pic.sagepub.com at Xi’an Jiaotong University on January 3, 2016
5
Figure 5. Meshing section of ‘engaging into’ teeth.
The coordinate of the boundary point of the ‘enga-
ging into’ section ðxc , yc Þ can be found as follows
8
< x2c y2
2 ¼ 1
c
ðdf =2!Þ2
þ ðd =2þ!Þ
f
ð4Þ
: d2c
x2c þ y2c ¼ 4
where df is the reference diameter of the flexspline, ! is
the maximum radial deformation of the flexspline
caused by the wave generator, and dc is the reference
diameter of the circular spline. The number of ‘enga-
ging into’ teeth can be approximated as
 2 3
Zc   2 arccos 2jdxcc j
ZR ¼ 6
6
7
7 ð5Þ
6 4 7
where Zc is the number of teeth of the circular spline.
To calculate the stiffness of one practical tooth pair
Kms , the deformation of each tooth at the meshing
point along the direction of the unit meshing force
must first be obtained. As every tooth in harmonic
drive is still rigid body in small scale, the method
proposed by Cornell18 is used to evaluate the tooth
deformation. The practical tooth is simplified as a
trapezoidal tooth whose lower bottom length and
height are Lb and Ht respectively, for ease of calcula-
tion, as shown in Figure 6. The tooth is divided into n
ð3Þ short cantilever beams, and the thickness, section area
and section modulus of the ith beam are Ti , Ai , and
Ii , respectively, as shown by the shading in Figure 6.
The distance along the x-axis from the beam to the
meshing point j is Lij , half of the tooth thickness at
the meshing point is yj , Poisson’s ratio is , the elastic
modulus is E, and the angle between the unit meshing
force Fj and the y-axis is j . The deformation Bij at
point j caused by the ithbeam considering the
6 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

bending, shearing and compression of one tooth can of flexspline will be produced and make the harmonic
then be determined as follows18 drive different from rigid planar gear in teeth contact
condition. But the flexspline teeth and circular teeth
 ( " #
Fj 1  2 2
T3i þ 3T2i Lij þ 3Ti L2ij keep engaged deeper at cup mouth of flexspline while
Bij ¼ cos j more shallow at the opposite end of the teeth (the end
E 3Ii
 2 close to the cup bottom) because of this deformation.
Ti yj þ 2Ti yj Lij ð6Þ And the tooth can still be considered as rigid body in
 cos j sin j
2Ii small scale. So the contact deformation cj at point j of
  

2 12ð1 þ ÞTi 2 Ti a tooth is approximated as follows18

þ cos j þ sin j
5Ai Ai
1:275
cj ¼ ð8Þ
E0:9 B0:8 F0:1
j
The deformation Bj at point j caused by all of the
short cantilever beams of one tooth is thus where B is the tooth width.
The deformation j of each tooth at the meshing
X
n
point j along the direction of the meshing force can
Bj ¼ Bij ð7Þ therefore be obtained as follows
i¼1

Because of the stretching effect of wave generator j ¼ Bj þ cj ð9Þ

and meshing effect, an approximate cone deformation
After the tooth deformation of the flexspline and
circular spline are calculated through the method
above, the meshing deformation mj of one tooth
pair is obtained as follows

mj ¼ j f þ j c ð10Þ

where j f is the flexspline deformation at the meshing

point and j c is the deformation of the circular spline.
During operation of the harmonic drive, the mesh-
ing depth of every tooth pair at the same time is dif-
ferent; therefore, the position of the meshing point
varies for each tooth pair. The two extreme meshing
conditions are shown in Figure 7. Two different values
of Lm , which represents the distance from the tooth
tip to the force point, are used to evaluate the deform-
ation under two extreme meshing conditions. The
average of the two deformation results is used to
approximate Kms as follows
 
1 1 1
Figure 6. Equivalent trapezoidal tooth model used to calcu- Kms ¼ þ ð11Þ
late the deformation of one tooth.
2 mj 1 mj 2

Figure 7. Two extreme meshing conditions of a tooth pair in a harmonic drive.

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Zou et al.
where mj 1 is the deformation under the initial mesh-
ing condition and mj 2 is the deformation of the dee-
pest engagement status.
Stiffness of bearing and cylinder. The problem of solving
for the stiffness of the flexspline cylinder can be mod-
elled as a torsion problem of an ordinary cylinder with
a thin bottom. Note that the structure under tooth root
is also considered as part of cylinder. According to
material mechanics, the torsional stiffness of the flexs-
pline cylinder can be determined from the equation
Eðd4WR  d4RB Þ Eðd4WR  d4BD Þ
Kt ¼ þ ð12Þ
64l ð1 þ Þ 64lb ð1 þ Þ
where l is the length of the cylinder, lb is the thickness
of the cylinder bottom, dWR is the diameter of cylin-
der’s outer circle, dRB is the diameter of the cylinder’s
inner circle and dBD is the diameter of the location
hole in the middle of the bottom.
The thin-walled ball bearing radial stiffness Kb and
radial damping Cb are representations of the radial
stiffness and damping of the wave generator, and
their values can be approximated according to the
method of stiffness and damping calculation for an
ordinary ball bearing.19
Integrated compliance. The three stiffness attributes
above can be combined as a torsional stiffness KHD
that indicates the relation between the torsion and
torque on an axis. According to the geometric prin-
ciple of the harmonic drive, this combined torsional
stiffness at the output axis KHD f is determined from
the equation
1 1 1 1
¼ þ þ , ð13Þ
KHD f Km r2g cos2 ðt Þ Kt Kb r2g cot2 ðt Þ
and the torsional stiffness at the input axis KHD
be represented as
1 N2 N2 N2 tan2 ðt Þ
¼ þ þ ð14Þ
KHD w Km r2g cos2 ðt Þ Kt Kb r2g
The simulated result for the torsional stiffness KHD
will be compared with the experimental results in the
Stiffness measurement and verification section to
verify the rationality of the three-stiffness model
above.
Modelling kinematic error in the harmonic drive
Due to manufacturing and assembly errors, kinematic
inaccuracies will occur in the harmonic drive and may
excite vibrations that produce dramatic torque losses
and velocity fluctuations, affecting the dynamic
performance and precision positioning4; therefore,
the kinematic error should be included in the har-
monic drive model. The kinematic error ke is defined
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7
Figure 8. Measurements of kinematic error.
as the deviation between the actual output rotation
and the expected output rotation, and this error can
be represented by the following equation
i
ke ¼o  ð15Þ
N
The kinematic errors of two real harmonic drive
systems may be different due to random manufactur-
ing or assembly errors; therefore, these errors have to
be obtained through careful measurement and
characterised in the harmonic drive model using
experimental data. Figure 8 shows the kinematic
error experimental data from our measurements in
the Kinematic error measurement and mechanism
analysis section. As shown in Figure 8, the kinematic
error is composed of a series of harmonics; in particu-
lar, a fundamental harmonic with a frequency of two
cycles per input motor revolution is found.
w can According to the literature,5 a Fourier series
expansion ke sim can be used to analytically express
the kinematic error as a function of i as follows
a0 Xk
ke sim ¼ þ ½an cosð!n i Þ þ bn sinð!n i Þ ð16Þ
2 n¼1
where !n is the angular frequency of the harmonic,
which exhibits a higher amplitude in the fast Fourier
transform (FFT) results for the kinematic error; k is
the number of Fourier terms; and a0 is a DC compo-
nent that represents that the impact of the positive
part of the kinematic error is larger than that of the
negative part. The constants an and bn are the
coefficients of the harmonic components and are
determined from the fit of the experimental data
ke rsp via numerical integration.
Kinematic error is caused by a change in the
position between the teeth of the flexspline and the cir-
cular spline due to eccentricity5; therefore, the cyclic
8 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)
Figure 9. Experimental and fitted friction torque at the input
axis.
pattern of the eccentric error e is added to the har-
monic drive model as an effect of the kinematic error.
According to the geometric relation of the harmonic
drive model, e can be calculated as follow
ke sim rg
e¼
tanðt Þ
The experiments to identify the parameters in
equation (16) will be carried out in the Kinematic
error measurement and mechanism analysis section.
Modelling friction in the harmonic drive
The experimental results show that the friction torque
in the harmonic drive appears with the Stribeck effect,
a constant component and a velocity-dependent com-
ponent.4,13 In our experiment, which will be discussed
in the Friction torque measurement section, similar
friction properties of the harmonic drive were
found, as shown in Figure 9. In a harmonic drive
system, there are two friction sources: the tooth
meshing section and the thin-walled ball bearing.
The relative motion between the flexspline tooth
and the circular spline tooth is similar to the
motion between two flat surfaces; therefore, dry, slid-
ing and viscous rubbing between the gear teeth are
considered as Stribeck friction and linear viscous
friction. The friction at the ball bearing can be
represented as a nonlinear friction–velocity relation.
In our research, the friction of the harmonic drive
consisted of the Stribeck effect, a constant compo-
nent and a velocity-dependent component.
The Stribeck component and constant component
originated from the tooth meshing section, while
the velocity-dependent component was composed of
two parts: viscous friction in the tooth meshing sec-
tion and a nonlinear velocity-dependent friction at
the thin-walled ball bearing.
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The velocity-dependent friction at the ball bearing
can be modelled based on the Palmgren empirical
equation,20 that is
_ 23 d3  
7 f0 ð0 i Þ
Ffb ¼ 10 m
sgn _i ð18Þ
rg
where f0 is a coefficient determined by the bearing and
lubrication style, 0 is the viscosity of the lubricant,
and dm is the pitch diameter of the bearing.
The friction Ffm between the gear teeth is as follows
n     o  
Ffm ¼ Fc þ ðFs  Fc Þ exp _i =vs  þ c_i sgn _i
ð19Þ
where Fc is the Coulomb friction that leads to the
constant component of the friction torque, Fs is the
static friction, vs is the Stribeck velocity,  is the shape
coefficient, and c is the viscous coefficient.
According to the proposed harmonic drive model,
the overall friction torque at the harmonic drive input
Tf can be represented as
Ffm df sinðt Þ
Tf ðvÞ ¼ Ffb rg þ ð20Þ
ð17Þ 2N
Ffb can be calculated according to parameters in the
corresponding literature or manual, but parameters
such as Fc , Fs , vs , , c in Ffm have to be identified
through the friction measurement experiment that
will be discussed in the Friction torque measurement
section.
Test experiment and attribute evaluation
Test apparatus
A test apparatus was established to measure the kine-
matic error, compliance and friction in a harmonic
drive.
As shown in Figure 10, the test rig is composed of
an AC servo motor with an encoder, a harmonic drive
system, a high-precision encoder, and an inertial load.
The harmonic drive system is manufactured by HD
Systems Inc., its type is Unit Type CSF-25, its reduc-
tion ratio is 120, and it was configured as a reducer
directly attached to the servo motor. The servo motor
produces the input motion of the harmonic drive; its
type is SGMJV-02 of YASKAWA, and its servo amp-
lifier is SGDV.
A motor encoder with a resolution of 8192 lines is
used to measure the input rotation angle of the har-
monic drive. A HEIDENHAIN high-precision enco-
der with a resolution of 18,000 lines is used to measure
the output rotation angle of the harmonic drive. The
torque at the input of the harmonic drive is measured
through the torque monitoring port at the servo
amplifier.
Zou et al. 9

Figure 10. Schematic diagram and photograph of the testing apparatus.

The motor rotation angle from the servo amplifier

is measured by a CNT32 counter card, the signal of
the high-precision encoder is acquired through an
IK220 counter card, and the torque from the servo
amplifier’s monitoring port is measured using a
DAQ2005 analogue data acquisition card. All the sig-
nals can be acquired simultaneously using a public
clock from the IK220.
To measure the compliance of the harmonic drive,
the output axis is fixed. To measure the kinematic
error and friction, the inertial load is removed.

Stiffness measurement and verification

When the stiffness of the harmonic drive was mea-
sured, the output axis of the harmonic drive was
fixed, and the motor was then rotated through an
angle at which the output torque would not exceed
the rated torque of the harmonic drive. The input
torque and torsion were measured to obtain the
input stiffness curve. The torsion at the output axis
needs to be subtracted from the input torsion because
of the unavoidable deformation of the output axis.
The equivalent torsion difference w , which is
defined as the abscissa of the stiffness curve, is
w ¼i  No
Figure 11. Input stiffness curve of the harmonic drive.
the calculated torsional stiffness at the output axis
of the harmonic drive is 2:85  104 N  m=rad. This
value is close to the stiffness (3:1  104 N  m=rad)
given by the user manual. Hence, the three key stiff-
ness parameters Kms , Kt and Kb can be incorporated
into the response calculation of the harmonic drive
model. The radial damping Cb of the thin-walled
ð21Þ ball bearing is set as 1:8  103 N  s=m.19

The experimental stiffness curve is shown in Kinematic error measurement and

Figure 11. The experimental stiffness at the input
axis of the harmonic drive is represented as the
slope of the curve and is 2:0 N  m=rad.
The stiffness of the harmonic drive was also calcu-
lated according to equations (3) to (12) in the
Modelling compliance in the harmonic drive section,
and the parameters used are shown in Table 1.
The calculation results of the three key stiffness
parameters Kms , Kt and Kb are 5:28  107 N=m,
3:05  105 N  m=rad and 1  108 N=m, respectively.
According to equation (14), the calculated torsional
stiffness at the input axis of the harmonic drive is
1:981 N  m=rad, which is almost the same as the
experimental stiffness. According to equation (13),
mechanism analysis
Ghorbel demonstrated that the kinematic error of a
harmonic drive could be decomposed into a basic
component and a stiffness-related component.5 To
obtain the basic component of the kinematic error,
experiments should be conducted at very low rota-
tional velocity to avoid the excitation of vibrations
due to flexibility. By controlling the motor to operate
at a slow rotational velocity of 15 r/min, the kinematic
error was tested. The kinematic error curve for five
motor rotations is shown in Figure 12.
In the experiment, the data for the kinematic error
were sampled at time intervals and not at position

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10 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

Table 1. Parameters used in the calculation of the stiffness.

Numerical
Parameter value

Gear ratio (N) 120

Flexspline neutral layer radius (rg ) 35.25 mm
Flexspline reference diameter (df ) 72 mm
Flexspline maximum radial 0.5 mm
deformation (!)
Circular spline reference diameter (dc ) 72.6 mm
Circular spline teeth number (Zc ) 242
Poisson’s ratio () 0.26
Elastic modulus (E) 2:06  1011 Pa
Angle between meshing 30
force and y-axis (j )
Number of short beams (n) 60 Figure 13. Spectrum of displacement variation magnitudes
Distance from tooth tip to 0/0.4 mm with respect to cycles per input revolution.
force point (Lm ) for
initial/deepest engagement
Tooth width (B) 12 mm Table 2. Frequencies and coefficients of the Fourier series.
Lower length of tooth (Lb ) for 0.91/0.92 mm n !n an (103 deg) bn (103 deg)
flexspline/circular spline
Height of tooth (Ht ) for 0.76/0.76 mm 1 2 0.2057 4.5000
flexspline/circular spline 2 4 0.0110 1.0000
Length of flexspline cylinder (L) 37 mm
Diameter of cylinder’s outer circle (dWR ) 71 mm
Diameter of cylinder’s inner circle (dRB ) 70 mm
Thickness of the cylinder bottom (lb ) 1 mm
Diameter of the location 18 mm
hole on bottom (dBD )

Figure 14. Comparison between the simulated kinematic

error results and experimental data.

that the resampled result ke rsp coincides with the

Figure 12. Experimental data of the kinematic error and the
data after resampling.
intervals. To acquire the position frequency informa-
tion of the kinematic error, the experimental data
were resampled at a position interval of 0:036 using
a high-precision cubic spline method. Figure 12 shows
experimental data ke .
A FFT of the resampled kinematic error was cal-
culated with respect to the input motor revolutions
(see Figure 13). Note that the FFT results have sig-
nificant peaks at 2 and 4 revolutions. A Fourier series
expansion ke sim was used to analytically express the
kinematic error as a function of i through the method
in the Modelling kinematic error in the harmonic
drive section. The frequencies and coefficients of the
Fourier series ke sim are shown in Table 2, and the
simulated and experimental results of the kinematic
error are shown in Figure 14.

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Zou et al.
Figure 15. Mechanism of kinematic error induced by assembly error. (a) Assembly error in harmonic drive and (b) further analysis
on the meshing condition.
To evaluate the fitting precision of the simulated
results, the normalised mean-square-error (MSE)
method is used as follows
100 X N
MSEðke sim Þ ¼ 2
½ke sim ði Þ  ke ði Þ2
N0 i¼1
ð22Þ
where N0 is the number of the selected experimental
data and 2 is the kinematic error variance. If the
mean of the actual errors ke is used for evaluation
(i.e. ke sim ¼ke for all i ), MSE will be 100; therefore,
an MSE of less than 5.0 indicates a good fit, and an
MSE of less than 1.0 indicates an excellent fit.21
The MSE of the Fourier series ke sim of the experi-
mental data is 0.71; therefore, the Fourier series is a
very good representation of the actual kinematic error
in the harmonic drive can thus be incorporated into
the harmonic drive model.
Although, according to the results from the litera-
ture5,10 and from our research, the performance of
modelling the kinematic error using sine or cosine
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11
harmonics is acceptable, the mechanism whereby the
kinematic error is introduced and its representation in
the harmonic drive model is seldom discussed.
Ghorbel5 proposed an explanation for this error, as
shown in Figure 15(a). The misalignment of the
circular spline due to assembly error and/or shaft
deflection would cause the flexspline teeth (position
A) to move deeper into the circular spline than
toward the opposite side (position B). A greater
mesh depth results in the load translating faster
when the wave generator rotates (angle 1 ¼ 90 in
Figure 15(a)), which in turn results in the negative
slope in the kinematic error waveform. During the
next 90 (angle 2 ) of the rotation of the wave gener-
ator, the motor will produce a positive slope in the
kinematic error waveform. Based on Ghorbel’s
research, further analysis of the mechanism whereby
the kinematic error is introduced was performed, as
shown in Figure 15(b). When the major axis of the
wave generator rotates at the position A-B in
Figure 15(a), the misalignment will cause the flexs-
pline tooth at position A to move from the ideal
position, represented by a solid line in Figure 15(b),
12
to the actual position (dotted line) for the same motor
revolution. The flexspline attached to the output shaft
will rotate for an additional slight angle displacement
under the meshing effect, and subsequently, the actual
output will lead the ideal output. The positive part of
the kinematic error waveform is thus produced. The
teeth in the range of 1 ¼ 90 have the same meshing
condition. Similarly, when the major axis of the wave
generator rotates at position C1–C2, the distance
between the ideal flexspline tooth (solid line) and the
actual tooth (dotted line) at position C2 caused by the
misalignment will cause the teeth to mesh at a later
time than in the ideal transmission, which in turn will
produce the negative part of the kinematic error
waveform as well as the teeth at 2 ¼ 90 . The meshing
condition at position B will not produce a positive or
negative displacement of the flexspline relative to the
ideal transmission, and the meshing force at position
C1 will lag the input motion, as shown in Figure
15(b). However, a difference exists between our
research and Ghorbel’s research. It is believed that
the slope of the kinematic error waveform becomes
positive at 3 ¼ 90 for the gradual change from the
negative maximum error position to the positive max-
imum error position, and the slope of the kinematic
error waveform becomes negative at 4 ¼ 90 . A kine-
matic error waveform with a frequency of two cycles
per motor rotation is thereby produced.
An extra experiment to demonstrate the mechan-
ism of kinematic error was performed in our research.
Due to the difficulty in measuring the meshing depth,
the friction torque of the harmonic drive input was
measured in the kinematic error experiment to evalu-
ate the meshing condition, with a larger torque
considered in addition to a higher meshing depth.
As shown in Figure 16, the friction torque waveform
at the harmonic drive input changes in the same
manner as the kinematic error waveform (see
Figure 12), and the phases of its extreme points are
almost the same as those of the kinematic error.
Figure 16. Friction torque measured in the kinematic error
experiment.
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Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)
This result means that the maximum kinematic
error, which may occur at position A in Figure
15(a), corresponds to the maximum friction torque,
which corresponds to the highest meshing depth. It
can therefore be obtained that the positive maximum
kinematic error occurs at the position (position A)
where a higher depth is found, as the mechanism of
kinematic error analysed above. The explanation
remains the same for the other angle positions and
demonstrates the mechanism of kinematic error.
Friction torque measurement
The friction curve shown in Figure 9 was generated by
measuring the mean torque required to operate the
harmonic drive at several constant velocities for a
number of complete wave generator revolutions. To
obtain the Stribeck effect of the harmonic drive fric-
tion, the velocity interval of the low-velocity zone was
set to a smaller value, and the friction torque mea-
sured at low velocity can be seen in the partial
enlargement of Figure 9.
The model proposed in the Modelling friction in
the harmonic drive section was used to explain the
friction curve for a harmonic drive. The unknown
parameters in this friction torque model were identi-
fied through experimental data by a genetic algorithm.
The parameters chosen for the nonlinear friction
torque of the thin-walled ball bearing and the identi-
fied Stribeck and linear viscous parameters are shown
in Table 3.
A comparison between the simulated friction
torque and the experimental data for forward and
reverse rotation directions is shown in Figure 17.
Verification and discussion of model
performance
Because the attributes in the new model proposed in
the section on An improved single tooth pair model of
a harmonic drive can be computed theoretically or
identified experimentally, all of the attributes were
obtained and substituted into equations (2), and
Table 3. Parameters of the friction torque model.
Parameter Numerical value
Coefficient determined by bearing 1.8
and lubrication style (f0 )
Viscosity of lubricant (0 ) 80 mm2/s
Pitch diameter of bearing (dm ) 58 mm
Coulomb friction (Fc ) 346.852 N
Static friction (Fs ) 468.856 N
Stribeck velocity (vs ) 2 r/min
Shape coefficient () 1.1095
Viscous coefficient (c) 0:0067N  min=r
Zou et al.
Figure 17. Experimental and simulated friction torque in a
harmonic drive.
Figure 18. Input velocity step data. Vi , values of objective
input rotational velocities.
subsequently, the mathematical model describing the
entire nonlinear, a second-order harmonic drive
system was established. The mathematical model
could be solved by using a Runge–Kutta method
with varying steps. After a motion input is given,
the output of harmonic drive can be calculated and
predicted. Velocity-step experiments were used to
verify the accuracy of this harmonic drive model. At
eight different input step velocities of rotation Vi , 60,
120, 300, 600, 1200, 1800, 2400, and 3000 r/min (as
shown in Figure 18), the output velocity response of
the mathematical model was simulated. To verify the
accuracy of the new model, velocity-step experiments
at the eight velocities were also performed. The simu-
lation output velocities were compared with the
experimental output velocities in Figure 19.
Figure 19 shows that the simulation results of the
new model are generally in good agreement with
the experimental results. The simulation and experi-
mental results are almost the same when the step
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13
Figure 19. Comparison between simulated outputs and
experimental outputs. Vi , values of objective input rotational
velocities.
rotational velocities are smaller than 1800 r/min,
which means that the performance of the new model
is good at these velocities. At the step rotational velo-
cities of 2400 and 3000 r/min, although there are amp-
litude and phase differences between the simulation
and the experimental output (response) velocities,
their fluctuation frequency is consistent.
There may be three reasons for the deviation
between the simulation and experimental output
responses at input rotational velocities of 2400 and
3000 r/min. First, the kinematic error model was
established using a low-rotational-velocity experiment
(15 r/min) in which not only the stiffness-related com-
ponent but also the friction increment induced by
increased velocity was ignored. Second, all of the
output response experiments have their own starting
positions; therefore, the phase deviations of response
velocities caused by return-to-zero errors are unavoid-
able. Third, some attributes in the simulation, such as
the radial damping coefficient of the bearing and the
viscous damping coefficient of the friction torque,
were selected according to experience and therefore
have to be painstakingly adjusted.
The comparison between the step-velocity simula-
tion and experiment shows that this new model cap-
tures the main attributes of the harmonic drive system
and is reasonable for expressing the dynamic perform-
ance of the harmonic drive system. In the new model
of the harmonic drive, the internal interactions of the
three components are clearly shown, and the kine-
matic error, friction torque and compliance are
placed at locations that have definite physical mean-
ings; the new model is hence a convenient way to
understand the transmission mechanism and dynamic
behaviour of a harmonic drive. Engineers, especially
design engineers might find that this model could give
them an intuitive understanding of the operation
behavior of harmonic drive, and help them to adjust
the operational or structural parameters of harmonic
14
drive to good dynamic behavior. The controller of
the harmonic drive system will find that this
model provides a simple way for obtaining the key
attributes like stiffness, kinematic error and friction
torque.
Conclusions
To understand the dynamic behavior and the internal
interaction of harmonic drive system, a new harmonic
drive model is proposed in this paper. The following
conclusions can be drawn from the work presented in
this paper.
1. To consider the internal interactions of the
three key components forming the harmonic
drive, the meshing stiffness between the teeth, the
torsional stiffness of the flexspline cylinder and the
radial stiffness of the thin-walled ball bearing are
incorporated into the new model of the harmonic
drive system. The theoretical calculation methods
of the three stiffness attributes and the overall
input and output stiffness are given, which can
be used to accurately obtain the compliance prop-
erty in a harmonic drive and provide an effective
way to acquire the stiffness characteristics of a
harmonic drive in contrast to time-consuming
experiments.
2. The basic component of the kinematic error
caused by manufacturing or assembly error can
be measured by a uniform low-velocity test. The
position frequency analysis and Fourier series
expansion are well suited to obtain the fundamen-
tal frequency and amplitude of the kinematic
error. The kinematic error occurs due to the
approach difference between the flexspline and cir-
cular spline teeth and could be considered as an
integrated eccentricity in the harmonic drive
model.
3. To accurately model the harmonic drive, the fric-
tion force at the thin-walled ball bearing and gear
teeth interface should be considered, and the
Stribeck friction model and Palmgren model can
be used to represent the overall nonlinear, velo-
city-dependent friction.
4. In the new model of a harmonic drive system,
attributes such as the stiffness, kinematic error
and friction torque are put at positions that have
actual physical meanings. Using this model, fur-
ther research can be performed to determine the
key influencing factors and help to modify the
design, process and control parameters of har-
monic drive systems.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.
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Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial
support for the research, authorship, and/or publication
of this article: This study is supported by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China program (grant
number 51175400) and the Program for Chang Jiang
Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University
(grant number IRT1172).
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Jo equivalent inertia of the output axis
2006, ISMA 2006, Louvain, Belgium, 18–20 September
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Appendix n number of short cantilever beams
Notation ni input rotational velocity
no output rotational velocity
an ,bn coefficients of the harmonic compo- N gear ratio of the harmonic drive
nents of kinematic error N0 number of the selected experimental
a0 DC component of kinematic error data in MSE
Ai section area of short cantilever beam rg radius of the flexspline neutral layer
B tooth width Tf overall friction torque at the harmonic
c viscous coefficient of Stribeck model drive input
Cb radial damping of the thin-walled ball Ti thickness of short cantilever beam
bearing vi elliptical cam tangential velocity
dc reference diameter of the circular spline vo flexspline tangential velocity
df reference diameter of the flexspline vs Stribeck velocity
dm pitch diameter of the bearing Vi values of objective input rotational
dBD diameter of the location hole in the velocities
middle of the cylinder bottom xc x coordinate of the boundary point of
dRB diameter of cylinder’s inner circle the ‘engaging into’ section
dWR diameter of cylinder’s outer circle x1 radial motion of the bearing inner circle
e cyclic pattern of the eccentric error x2 radial motion of the ‘engaging into’
e0 eccentric error that leads to the kine- teeth
matic error yc y coordinate of the boundary point of
E elastic modulus the ‘engaging into’ section
f0 coefficient determined by the bearing yj half of the tooth thickness at the
and lubrication style meshing point
Fc Coulomb friction of the friction torque y1 tangential motion of the ‘engaging into’
Ffb friction caused by the thin-walled ball teeth
bearing y2 tangential motion of the output axis
Ffm friction caused by the teeth meshing Zc number of teeth of the circular spline
Fj unit meshing force ZR number of ‘engaging into’ teeth
Fs static friction
Ht height of the trapezoidal tooth n angle of the wedge representing the
i subscript, represent the position of elliptical cam
short cantilever beam t gear tooth angle

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16 Proc IMechE Part C: J Mechanical Engineering Science 0(0)

j angle between the unit meshing force ke kinematic error

and the y-axis ke rsp fit of the kinematic error experimental
 shape coefficient of the Stribeck model data
Bij tooth deformation caused by one short ke sim Fourier series expansion used to express
cantilever beam the kinematic error
Bj tooth deformation caused by all of the o rotation angle of the output axis
short cantilever beams 1 wave generator angle range where
cj contact deformation at meshing point kinematic error is positive
of a tooth 2 wave generator angle range where
j deformation of one tooth at the mesh- kinematic error is negative
ing point 3 wave generator angle range where
j c circular spline deformation at the kinematic error slop is positive
meshing point 4 wave generator angle range where
j f flexspline deformation at the meshing kinematic error slop is negative
point ke mean of the actual kinematic errors
mj meshing deformation of one tooth pair  Poisson’s ratio
mj 1 tooth deformation under the initial 2 kinematic error variance
meshing condition 0 viscosity of the lubricant
mj 2 tooth deformation of the deepest ! maximum radial deformation of the
engagement status flexspline
w equivalent torsion difference between !n angular frequency of the harmonic of
input and output kinematic error
i input axis rotation angle

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