Freedom in Machinery

A seamless combination of the two volumes (1984, 1990), this work presents an exciting, diagrammatic display of the hidden geometry of freedom and constraint.

Jack Phillips (Author)

9780521673310, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 22 February 2007

448 pages
24.6 x 18.8 x 2.2 cm, 0.798 kg

Does a machine run well by virtue of its accuracies, or its freedoms? This work presents an exciting, diagrammatic display of the hidden geometry of freedom and constraint. It bolsters the imaginative design of robots, but applies across all fields of machinery. The figures and their captions comprise alone a self-standing story, and this connects effectively with the rigorously argued text. The seamless combination of the two volumes (1984, 1990) renders the internal cross-referencing (forward and backward within the volumes) easier to look up. The appearance of this paperback is a clear testament to the work's ongoing readership. The term screw theory occurs throughout. This relates (after Ball) to the book's philosophy; and one might equally mention kinetostatics (after Federhofer). An all-pervading, counter-intuitive fact accordingly presents itself: while, analogously, angular velocity relates to force, linear velocity relates to couple. A direct consequence of Freedom in Machinery is a more recent book by the same author. Specifically titled General Spatial Involute Gearing and published in Germany (2003), it exemplifies the many ways in which Freedom in Machinery clarifies the enigmatic field of spatial mechanism. That field continuously expands with the current, continuous thrust of ordinary engineering practice.

Volume I: Preface
General introduction
1. Mechanism and the mobility of mechanism
2. Overconstraint and the nature of mechanical motion
3. Some of the various lines in a moving body
4. Enumerative geometry and the powers of infinity
5. Rigidity and the instantaneous screw axis
6. Irregularity and the freedoms within a joint
7. The possibilities in reality for practical joints
8. Some elementary aspects of two degrees of freedom
9. The linear complex of right lines in a moving body
10. Line systems and the dual vectors in mechanics
Volume II: Preface
11. Geometrical properties of the linear line systems
12. The vector polygons for spatial mechanism
13. On the two theorems of three axes
14. Some reciprocities across the middle number three
15. The generality and the geometry of the cylindroid
16. The discovery in a mechanism of a cylindroid
17. Action, notion, clearances and backlash
18. Singular events in the cycles of motion
19. Fundamental relations and some algebraic methods
20. The special geometry of some overconstrained loops
21. The helitangent lines in a moving body
22. The cylindroid in gear technology
23. The general and the special screw systems
Bibliography
Index of proper names
Subject index.

Subject Areas: Automatic control engineering [TJFM]