From a Linkage Built on Sand to Scientific Software — pylinkage 0.7.0

pylinkage is a Python library for planar linkage synthesis: you design a mechanism, define a target motion, and the optimizer — using particle swarm optimization — finds the right dimensions. If you’re new to the project, I wrote about its origins in A Solid Snake. Version 0.7.0 is a foundational rewrite. Not new features stacked on old code, but everything rebuilt on proper abstractions. Here’s why I made these changes and how the library is now much better. ...

March 29, 2026 · 5 min · admin

A Solid Snake

Let’s talk about a project I’ve been working on for a long time, and my first published Python package: pylinkage. It’s a lightweight linkage designer and simulator that lets you quickly define and optimize mechanical linkages in code. Introduction Pylinkage dates back to 2018, when I started working on a project on leg mechanisms. At the time there was no simple way to generate mechanical linkages in Python, so I decided to create my own open-source package. The goal: go from linkage definition to mathematical optimization with minimal boilerplate. ...

November 29, 2023 · 2 min · admin