Traditionally, mechanisms are created by designer's intuition, ingenuity, and experience. However, such an ad hoc approach cannot ensure the identification of all possible design alternatives, nor does it necessarily lead to optimum design. Mechanism Design: Enumeration of Kinematic Structures According to Function introduces a methodology for systematic creation and classification of mechanisms.

With a partly analytical and partly algorithmic approach, the author uses graph theory, combinatorial analysis, and computer algorithms to create kinematic structures of the same nature in a systematic and unbiased manner. He sketches mechanism structures, evaluating them with respect to the remaining functional requirements, and provides numerous atlases of mechanisms that can be used as a source of ideas for mechanism and machine design.

He bases the book on the idea that some of the functional requirements of a desired mechanism can be transformed into structural characteristics that can be used for the enumeration of mechanisms. The most difficult problem most mechanical designers face at the conceptual design phase is the creation of design alternatives. Mechanism Design: Enumeration of Kinematic Structures According to Function presents you with a methodology that is not available in any other resource.