Study on Patent Mapping of Harmonic Drive Technology

Using IPC classi mfication method (International Patent Classification) and data collection, patent information hiding in the technological field of the Harmonic Drive is mined. The corresponding patent map is drawn, issues related to research Harmonic Drive technology in the global scope of the patent layout, key technology and research focus are studied. The technology industry development trend, key technology areas and competition mechanisms are analyzed. Patent the main patent applicant applied only involves 5 main technical fields. The domestic research institutions need to increase the technology covered so as to be able to cope the birth of new technology and to draw development present situation and future development trend in the field of technology. Introduction Harmonic gear transmission technology is a new transmission technology born of the development of space technology in the 1950s of last century. Harmonic Drive is mainly composed of three basic components: fixed rigid internal gear, flexible gear, and wave generator make the radial deformation. Because of the simple structure, large transmission ratio, high transmission efficiency and other advantages, in recent decades, Harmonic Drive is widely used in Space technology, Radar communication, Energy field, Machine tool, Instruments and Apparatuses, Robots, Automobile, Shipbuilding, Spin, Metallurgy, Conventional Weapons, Precision optical equipment, Printing and packaging machinery and Medical apparatus and instruments and other fields [1-3]. As a useful tool to reveal the patent information figuratively, Patent Map is easy to understand, powerful, is of great significance to the development of technology, and has a great guiding significance to the leading technology and technological development of the enterprise [4]. In this paper, we scared 5169 domestic and foreign harmonic drive patent data published from 1957 to 2016. Draw the patent map of harmonic drive analyzed it. Discussed the development status of the global harmonic drive, we also put forward some suggestions on the development direction of the harmonic drive in China. Global Patent Analysis of Harmonic Drive Annual Trend of Harmonic Drive The world's first harmonic drive patent appeared in 1957 which was filed by C.W. Musser. In 1960, it was first use successfully by USM Co. and later by Hasegawa Gear Works. As can be seen from the data in Fig. 1, from harmonic drive technology was born to 1970, the number of global patent applications is very small. In 1970, Hasegawa Gear Works Ltd. became Harmonic Drive Systems Inc. located in Japan [5]. In 1987, Harmonic Drive AG and HD Systems Inc. established. With the wide spread of harmonic drive technology, the number of patents in the period from 1970s to the end of the twentieth Century began to grow rapidly. And the number of patents in 1990s grew significantly. Since the beginning of twenty-first Century, with the development of this technology and the research of harmonic drive technology in China, the global harmonic drive patent applications grew 7th International Conference on Mechatronics, Computer and Education Informationization (MCEI 2017) Copyright © 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Advances in Computer Science Research, volume 75