So I was wondering. We have hardware description languages where we define what kind of components we need connected, and it lays out the circuit board for you.
Why not invent something similar for mechanisms and clockworks?
You write what kind of mechanism you need - this many degrees of freedom, such-and-such gear ratio, so-much strength along this axis, center-of-mass at this point, etc,
And it would output a CAD file of a mechanism that does everything you need, optimized for amount of material or maybe thermal conductivity.
"I want 60 intermittent motions around a circle per minute!" "okay have this clock schematic"
get writing then
Look to mathematical proofs; more specifically: geometric proofs.
You'll need to understand them to be able to even begin designing this.
It's possible.
It's pretty insane to attempt in quality which would be good for anything.
I feel like mechanical design is too complex for a computer to understand. Yes, we can rewire FPGAs and create VSLI layouts with hardware description language, but digital logic is a very simple well-defined problem to a computer and we don't have to look at the mess it spews out because it's microscopic.
For a physical object of macroscopic scale, I feel like a computer would just make a colossal mess of things, even if it still gives you a mechanism that does what you want. It's rarely ever an issue of 'I want this thing to rotate at 1HZ given a 30Hz input' and more often a careful balance of forces, materials, economy, and careful use of limited space.
But, you know, I am not a mechanical engineer. But I've built a go-kart or two.
it may be easier if you have predefined parts of a machine (for example, counters, timers etc...) and you ask the program to calc the size of the pieces to archieve some properties and try to join them all in the smaller space possible.
Something like, timer at 60rpm -> counter from 1 to 60 laps -> bell (something, and then the coputer checks what timer and counter in his database fit better, calculates the size of every gear and gives you a CAD with a compact mechanism.
I'm thinking this problem can be translated to minecraft (sounds silly). It would be hard to make a program which could 'compile' a minecraft machine from some prefabricated pieces, but it is absolutelly possible.
~sorry for bad english~
Mechanical structures are usually visually constrained, if you think about it. Take a building for example, you design it to the specifications of the architect, apply stress analysis and figure out if it will hold.
In something like an engine, which is what I think you're getting at, you're just constrained by size/shape usually. So I think what you're trying to say is "can I tell a program to design me a 5hp 1 cylinder engine and have it output the parts I need?"
What you'd need to give is a list of parts, much in the same way you have a set of parts for a circuit (capacitors, inductors etc.). Getting the computer to think up a method itself might be inefficient, so you'd have to also provide some kind of template (engine template, suspension template etc.) and the end result would be slightly varied templates of the same thing
At least, that's how I see it. If the above is true, the usefulness of such a program is limited
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