This is pretty interesting. One problem I think the field of mechanical engineering has is that there is no high-level hardware description language to describe

This is pretty interesting. One problem I think the field of mechanical engineering has is that there is no high-level hardware description language to describe mechanical devices. Sure we have things like modelica which come close, but there are some pretty big disadvantages. It is very difficult to describe a work piece being moved through a factory and having operations performed on it with modelica. It is even a challenge to formally describe what mechanical devices do! Honestly, I think Charles Babbage may have made the most progress in this area with his mechanical notation[0]. It is crazy that Babbage was able to design a the difference engine without any CAD software! [0]http://blog.plan28.org/2014/11/babbages-language-of-thought.html http://blog.plan28.org/2014/11/babbages-language-of-thought....