Excerpt from Robotics Research Technical Report: A Framework for the Kinematic Analysis of Mechanical Devices Deducing the behavior of a device from its structural description is necessary to carry a number of tasks such as explanation, diagnosis and design. In all three cases we must be able to determine the possible behaviors of a device so that we can either produce a causal explanation, determine the fault by comparing the observed behavior with the desired behavior or introduce structural changes to achieve the desired behavior. For these tasks, envisioning'and prediction of behavior are of particular importance. Given a structural description of a mechanism in terms of its parts, their shapes and an initial position, envisioning consists of determining all the possible motions of each part and their relationships. Given a sequence of motions applied to various parts of the mechanism, prediction of behavior consists of determining the actual motions of each part and their relationships. Furthermore, a qualitative description of these behaviors is desirable to produce good explanations and guide the diagnosis or design process. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.