What does Leonardo Da Vinci have in common with Nautilus exercise Machines ?

Leonardo da Vinci invented the cam hammer around 1497. The cam is an irregulary shaped member on a rotating shaft that transfers motion. Arthur Jones invented the Nautilus machine for exercising in 1970. Cams are a prime example where mechanical cams are gruadually being replaced by electronic cams. Mechanical cams have been widely used for transferring, corrdinating and changing the type of motion from a master device to one or more slave systems. Replacing them are electronic cams, with the goal to obtain more flexible machines, with improved performances, ease of re-programming and lower costs. Witgh electronic cams, the motion is directly obtained by means of simpler mechanisms with electric actuators, properly programmed and controlled to generate the desired motion profiles, which allows for synchronization of actuators on a position or time basis.

The point is that electronic controlled motion transfer is becoming a part of modern technology. A means to gain more precise results. The understanding of motion control is a modern asset of industrialized nations and why technology is making the differance in the quality of human life.