Recently, I became aware of the overall poor quality of the articles on machines in Wikipedia, and I have spent quite a bit of time revising these articles over the past month. I hope my contributions are an improvement. Please take a look:

• Machine (mechanical)
• Mechanical system
• Linkage (mechanical)
• Screw axis
• Burmester’s theory
• Four-bar linkage
• Mechanism (engineering)
• Instantaneous center of rotation
• Screw theory
• Dual quaternion
• Mechanical advantage
• Overconstrained mechanism
• Kinematic pair
• Virtual work

As you may know anyone may edit Wikipedia, and it is intended to allow user communities to maintain the quality of particular sets articles. It is important that we take this opportunity because Wikipedia is an important resource to our students.

Geometric Design of Linkages, second edition

I am pleased to say that the second edition of my book, Geometric Design of Linkages, is now available, and I have to express my sincere gratitude to my co-author GimSong Soh, who helped make it happen.

You can find more information at the Springer Verlag web-page, GDL on Springer.com.

It is also already on Google Books, you can see it at the link GDL on books.google.com.

This is a draft of my editorial on 21st Century Kinematics for the Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics. It is a follow-up to my previous editorial on Kinematics, Polynomials and Computers. I would welcome your feedback.

Select this link to the .pdf of Kinematics, Polynomials, and Computers–A Brief History, which is a summary of the history of the kinematics of mechanisms and robotics with a focus on the challenge of solving the polynomial equations that arise in their study.  It is a draft of my February 2011 editorial for the ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics.

***Update*** This version has a correction to references [29] and [30].

Mechanism Generator is a SolidWorks add-in that assists in generating solid models of four-bar and six-bar linkages. It designed to be used in coordination with our Mathematica design software, which is freely available.

Ilian Bonev maintains bibliography and patent databases on parallel mechanisms and much more at ParallelMIC. Access it at the link http://www.parallemic.org/

Parallel Mechanisms information center

The basic properties of robots can developed by studying planar serial chains. Select this link for my notes on elementary robotics:
http://synthetica.eng.uci.edu/~mccarthy/mechanicaldesign101/McCarthyNotes-5.pdf

Elementary Robotics

A copy of my notes on DC motor torque and power can be downloaded at the link:
http://synthetica.eng.uci.edu/~mccarthy/mechanicaldesign101/McCarthyNotes-1.pdf

Motor Torque and Power

The basic principles of DC motors are presented by Joe Wolfe of the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia) at the link:
http://www.animations.physics.unsw.edu.au/jw/electricmotors.html

Phyclips from UNSW

Northwestern University (Chicago, Illinois) presents the basics of a DC motor in the Wiki page:
http://hades.mech.northwestern.edu/wiki/index.php/Brushed_DC_Motor_Theory

Northwestern University Wiki page

Joseph Klann provides a useful comparison of the leg designs for his Mondo Spider and Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest at the link:
http://www.mechanicalspider.com/comparison.html