Metamechanics
Metamechanics is an interdisciplinary framework that studies the meta-level organization of mechanical systems—the rules, structures, and principles that govern how components, constraints, and dynamics are configured and evolve. The term denotes a shift from analyzing forces and motions within a fixed system to examining the design space and governing meta-rules that produce those forces and motions.
At its core, metamechanics emphasizes architecture, constraint networks, modularity, and the selection of governing parameters. It
The field draws on systems theory, cybernetics, topology, graph theory, optimization, and design theory. It uses
Applications appear in robotics, where metamechanics informs the design of reconfigurable systems; in adaptive structures and
Critics note that the approach can be highly abstract and difficult to validate empirically. It risks conflating
As a simple illustration, a modular robot may use meta-rules to reconfigure limb modules into different locomotion
Overall, metamechanics remains a developing concept used to reason about the interplay between configuration, control, and