This is linkage mechanism design, there are a few mechanical engineering programs for it but I know of one "motion gen" that is free. Not the easiest to use but you can draw a path you want it to follow and tinker with how the pieces go together and move. I hope that helps. www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/motiongen/
20:42 The second pattern shown here (yes, I'm aware this video loop showed up earlier) isn't really demonstrated to its fullest. It would deform more evenly, and I suspect more completely, under *dilation.* If it were, say, pressed over a spherical object, it would stretch in all directions, with hexagonal cells deforming from concave to convex (with allowances at the vertices, of course).
