Book excerpt: Exact Constraint: Machine Design Using Kinematic Principles gives you a unique and powerful set of rules and techniques to facilitate the design of any type or size of machine. You learn the kinematic design techniques known as constraint pattern analysis. This method, widely used by designers of precision instruments, enables you to visualize the constraints and degrees of freedom of a mechanical connection as patterns of lines in space. By recognizing these line patterns (found in all types of machinery), you will better understand the way a machine will work - or will not work - in an entirely new domain.