超环面行星蜗杆传动将滚动接触技术与行星蜗杆传动技术融为一体，是机械传动领域的前沿技术，具有承载能力大、传动效率高、传动比大和噪音小等优点。文章全面论述了该种传动的起源、研究现状及存在的问题，并提出未来应从啮合理论、制造技术和承载能力三个方面进一步开展研究工作，探索一套综合设计理论与制造技术，以实现超环面行星蜗杆传动设计与制造过程的合理化。

The toroidal drive combines rolling contact technique with planet worm drive. The drive has many advantages such as high carrying capacity, large speed ratio, high operating efficiency and low noise. It is the frontier in the mechanical drive field. The paper reviews the origin and present study conditions of the drive. The present problems for the drive are also analyzed. The authors think that the engaging theory, manufacturing technique and the carrying capacity for the drive should be further studied so that a set of synthetic design theory and manufacturing technique can be developed and the rationalization of design and manufacture process is realized.