Theo Jansen builds amazing walking machines.
Each leg is an eight-bar linkage. The Wolfram Demonstration Project models this linkage in a Mathematica notebook. See the link:
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/ATheoJansenWalkingLinkage/
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/1242383[/vimeo]
Periodic Table
The National Institute of Standards and Technology provides an on-line periodic table. Access it and other information at the link: Periodic Table
National Institute of Standards and Technology
This is a link to notes on Geometric Design and Tolerancing by Prof. Graeme Britton of Raffles Design Institute, Singapore.
Prof. Britton\’s Notes on GD&T
A pdf version of Prof. Britton’s lecture is available at:
http://synthetica.eng.uci.edu/mechanicaldesign101/GDandT.pdf
Here is another excellent set of notes from the Technical College of New Jersey on geometric dimensioning and tolerancing.
Here is a link to a facebook album showing the racecars and teams at the 2009 Formula SAE California intercollegiate engineering racecar competition that occurred June 17-21, 2009 at the Auto Club Raceway, Fontana CA.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=89098&id=92647534369
2009 Formula SAE CA
Michael Ashby presents materials information in a practical format in his book Materials Selection in Mechanical Design.
Materials Selection in Mechanical Design
This is a link to lecture notes that give an idea of his approach:
http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/cme/pdfs/443ashbylectures2006.pdf
This 10-bar linkage is designed to drive a scissors movement in order to actuate a deployable structure. It was presented at the 2009 ReMar Conference in London. (UCI Robotics and Automation Lab)