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)
ThomasNet provides a link to a useful white paper on Timing Belt Theory by Gates-Mectrol:
http://www.thomasnet.com/white-papers/abstract/101106/timing-belt-theory.html
Geometric data on timing belt drives can found in the catalog linked to Gates-Mectrol home page:
Gear geometry data is available from PIC Design Inc. which is now part of RBC Bearings at the link:
http://pic-designcatalog.com/Images/pdfcat/section_12.pdf
RBC Bearings Logo
Stock Drive Products provides an on-line Handbook of Gears at the website:
http://www.sdp-si.com/products/Gears/Index.php
Stock Drive Products Logo
The Gleason Gear has a lot of useful information:
The American Gear Manufacturers Association provides standards for sale on-line at the site:
https://www.agma.org/standards/.
AGMA Logo
Prof. David Alciatore has a large number of videos illustrating machines, physics principles and billiards, including high speed videos. Video demonstrations of mechanisms can be found at the following site as well as links to much more:
This assembly of spherical rhombus linkages expands to enclose a volume. It was designed by Jerome Choe to explore the construction of complex articulated systems. (UCI Robotics and Automation Lab)