Rocket Richard

For all you gearheads out there:

oldcutlass

Interesting concept, but requires 2 power drives.

MDchanic

This system requires identical torque on both the "input" and the "control" shafts in order to work, which is to say, two motors, or one motor's output split in two.
It uses the same principle as the ingenious and very highly developed Prius Synergy drive.

GizMag (the publisher of the video) says: "the engineering report is quite clear on the fact that the 'control' motor needs to be just as powerful as the 'input' motor: 'Our designation of 'Input' and 'Control' shafts in this report is arbitrary in that both would conventionally be used to provide power. There is no inherent character of the mechanism that requires the input to be the dominant power-providing element. The torque provided by the control shaft will typically be of the same magnitude as the torque provided by the Input shaft... the Input and Control should be considered as parallel power paths rather than as 'power ' and 'control' elements respectively.'"

It's a useful system, but not as useful as the inventor would have you believe.

- Eric