Reducers are commonly used in many types of machines to reduce the speed and increase the torque of motors. For general industrial applications, the reduction ratio of a reducer is usually limited in consideration to its size. To provide high reduction ratios, harmonic drives (speed reducers) can be made very compact and lightweight and thus have been popular with robot manufactures and in other applications where weight is critical. In this study, an innovative design for reducers composed of planar cams and roller followers with high reduction ratios is proposed. It uses the relative motion between rollers and their cams to generate a high reduction ratio. In this thesis, the synthesis procedure of the reducer and the analysis results of the kinematic and dynamic characteristics based on the design parameters are also described. Furthermore, the experiments for testing and verifying the characteristics of the reducer are presented. Finally, a set of design parameters which meets the demand of an application is found by optimization methods.