Configuration spaces of hinged mechanisms, and their projections

Our subject is the geometry of planar hinged mechanisms. The article contains a formalization of basic concepts of the theory of hinged-lever constructions, as well as some information from real algebraic geometry needed for their study. We consider mechanisms with variable number of degrees of freedom and mechanisms that have more than one degree of freedom but each hinge of which moves with one degree of freedom. For the last type we find the dimension of the configuration space. We give a number of examples of mechanisms with unusual geometric properties and formulate open questions. Bibliography: 17 titles.