Equipping form with function

(Institute of Science and Technology Austria) Mechanical structures in steerable cars are optimized to fit exactly one particular shape of the toy. If designers want to reuse such a mechanism with different shapes, the necessary adjustments to the components were often unmanageable for non-experts. Scientists at IST Austria have developed an interactive design tool that allows users to easily adjust a mechanical template to the shape of their choice. The tool will be presented at this year's pre