Hacker News story: Ask HN: How can mechanical movements be designed systematically?

Ask HN: How can mechanical movements be designed systematically?
Is there any systematic method for designing/"programming" passive mechanical movements where, given mechanical input behavior, an output behavior is produced by the design? If one can come up with a solution which produces the desired behavior, it can be modeled in a CAD tool. But how do you come up with what to model? Here are several resources I am aware of but do not know how to piece together. - https://ift.tt/18CTHp9 - https://www.youtube.com/user/thang010146 - https://www.youtube.com/user/YesYenGraphiTech -- My specific input is a row of rods which over time independently actuate (go up) and return to their initial position (return back down). No more than, say, 6 rods are ever up at a given time. The output is a separate register of rods (o_1,o_2,o_3,o_4,o_5,o_6) with the following behavior: At any time, say the input rods (b_1,...,b_k) have actuated in their labeled order. Say one of them, (b_i), de-actuates. Then (o_i) actuates and de-actuates (goes up and down). I know an easy answer is to just use a microcontroller but I am really only interested in a purely mechanical solution. 0 comments on Hacker News.
Is there any systematic method for designing/"programming" passive mechanical movements where, given mechanical input behavior, an output behavior is produced by the design? If one can come up with a solution which produces the desired behavior, it can be modeled in a CAD tool. But how do you come up with what to model? Here are several resources I am aware of but do not know how to piece together. - https://ift.tt/18CTHp9 - https://www.youtube.com/user/thang010146 - https://www.youtube.com/user/YesYenGraphiTech -- My specific input is a row of rods which over time independently actuate (go up) and return to their initial position (return back down). No more than, say, 6 rods are ever up at a given time. The output is a separate register of rods (o_1,o_2,o_3,o_4,o_5,o_6) with the following behavior: At any time, say the input rods (b_1,...,b_k) have actuated in their labeled order. Say one of them, (b_i), de-actuates. Then (o_i) actuates and de-actuates (goes up and down). I know an easy answer is to just use a microcontroller but I am really only interested in a purely mechanical solution.