Four bar mechanisms are basic components of many important mechanical
devices. The kinematic synthesis of four bar mechanisms is a difficult
design problem. A novel method that combines the genetic programming
and decision tree learning methods is presented. We give a structural
description for the class of mechanisms that produce desired coupler
curves. Constructive induction is used to find and characterize
feasible regions of the design space. Decision trees constitute the
learning engine, and the new features are created by genetic
programming.