In engineering, a mechanism is a device that transforms input movement and forces into a desired set of output movement and forces. Designing mechanisms is a very challenging task since one needs to ensure that the mechanism is functional while satisfying all necessary criteria. Due to this reason, mechanism design is traditionally restricted to a very small group of experts.
In this topic, our goal is to enable general users to model and make mechanisms with freeform geometry by developing computational methods and tools to assist or automate the geometric modeling process. In particular, we are interested in modeling, analyzing, and designing novel mechanisms for realizing user-specified motion characteristics, including path generation and motion generation.