Graph representation of planetary gear trains: A review

The various graphical representations of planetary gear trains (PGTs), including basic assumptions and graph rules, are first reviewed in this paper. They revealed that they had close relationships. Their similarity has stimulated the development of a unified graphical representation. When there is a multiple joints in a graph, it can be reconfigured without affecting the information contained in the graph. To accomplish this, a rooted graph in which a multiple joint represents either the housing of the mechanism and/or a transfer vertex of a multi-planet fundamental geared entity is employed.