Rigidity of symmetric linearly constrained frameworks in the plane

Abstract

A bar-joint framework $(G,p)$ is the combination of a finite simple graph $G=(V,E)$ and a placement $p:V\to R^d$. The framework is rigid if the only edge-length preserving continuous motions of the vertices arise from isometries of the space. Motivated by applications where boundary conditions play a significant role, one may generalise and consider linearly constrained frameworks where some vertices are constrained to move on fixed affine subspaces. Streinu and Theran characterised exactly which linearly constrained frameworks are generically rigid in 2-dimensional space. In this article we extend their characterisation to symmetric frameworks. In particular necessary combinatorial conditions are given for a symmetric linearly constrained framework in the plane to be isostatic (i.e. minimally infinitesimally rigid) under any finite point group symmetry. In the case of rotation symmetry groups whose order is either 2 or odd, these conditions are then shown to be sufficient under suitable genericity assumptions, giving precise combinatorial descriptions of symmetric isostatic graphs in these contexts.