Overview
This book deals with questions of freedom and constraint in machinery. It asks, for example, whether the smooth working of a machine will depend entirely upon the accuracy of its construction. As it answers such questions, it explores the geometrical interstices of the so-called screw systems at the joints in mechanism. It combines, in three dimensions directly, the twin sciences of the kinetics and the statics of rigid contacting bodies, striking deeply into the foundations of both. It introduces the idea that the kinetostatics of spatical mechanism is a valuable discipline, thus setting down for further development the beginnings of screw theory. A special feature of this book is the profusion throughout of its spectacular line drawings, which excite and assist the imagination. This is important in the general area of modern machinery and robots where an ability to think and to design such systems until the geometrical nature of the practical joints and the spatical movements of the various parts of modern machinery is properly understood, these new areas make this book an important and timely addition to the literature. This book, with its main accent upon geometry, makes its thrust at those levels of our understanding that lie below the algebra and the mere programming of modern computers. The author's direct personal style makes even the more difficult of hi geometrical and other ideas accessible to the wide range of mathematicians, research workers, and mechanical engineers who will read this book. Designers and the builders of robots will study the material carefully.