This thesis presents the foundation of a computer program for the unified design of spatial mechanisms. The program will be capable of synthesizing any mechanism that can be described using an equivalent chain containing only revolute and prismatic joints. The supporting analysis routine will be general and will be able to analyze any lower pair mechanism using the iterative approach developed by Sheth and Uicker [1972].

Unlike precision point synthesis methods that allow only a limited number of positions to be specified, optimization will be employed to synthesize a wide variety of mechanisms. This approach will allow the user to interactively monitor and control objectives and constraints, which will yield practical solutions to realistic mechanism design problems.

The creation of this program will provide practicing engineers with the capacity to design many previously intractable spatial mechanisms.