[Al Skierkiewicz]

Frank,
Detroit has been experimenting with continuously variable drive systems for many years. They have been particularly suited for hybrid or all electrical vehicles. I know there is a great amount of info out there beginning with Popular Mechanics going back many years. I am surprised to not have seen any popping up in our robot designs but I do keep watching for them. There are a number of teams that have taken the shifting idea to a logical integration in robot design. Of particular note is Thunder Chicken's multi-speed transmission of last year. I believe that there is a white paper on their design. It was not only impressively designed and implemented but was surprisingly small and very well engineered.