Python

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. ...

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. ...

leggedsnake is a cool project I developed in Python. Its purpose is to improve the design of linkages, specifically leg mechanisms. The idea is to create a linkage using pylinkage, and then use a dynamic simulation (with gravity and forces) to select a better linkage based on a genetic algorithm. Demo video of leggedsnake Inspirations/Other cool projects This project was strongly influenced by Theo Jansen’s stranbeesten. At some point, it became more important when I felt that the already existing leg mechanism optimizers such as the one from Amanda Ghassaei (and please visit her impressive website!) could be improved. ...