Most engineering design practice involves a combination of synthesis and analysis.
Most engineering courses deal primarily with analysis techniques for various situations.
However, one cannot analyze anything until it has been synthesized into existence.
Many machine design problems require the creation of a device with particular motion
characteristics. Perhaps you need to move a tool from position A to position B in a particular
time interval. Perhaps you need to trace out a particular path in space to insert a
part into an assembly. The possibilities are endless, but a common denominator is often
the need for a linkage to generate the desired motions. So, we will now explore some
simple synthesis techniques to enable you to create potential linkage design solutions for
some typical kinematic applications.