Mechanism comparison determines when two mechanisms are kinematically equivalent. Mechanism classification organizes classes of equivalent mechanisms for efficient retrieval. Both tasks require describing mechanisms' behaviors from various perspectives and at multiple levels of abstraction. To produce such descriptions, we develop a set of operators to simplify and abstract kinematic descriptions derived from configuration spaces. Simplification operators ignore irrelevant information by incorporating constraints and assumptions.
Abstraction operators ignore detail by defining multiple levels of resolution.
The resulting hierarchy supports the design process throughout its evolution, from the conceptual to the detailed phase. It provides an explicit link between behavioral specifications and part geometry. In Research in Engineering Design, Vol.