Abstract We investigate the rigidity properties of rod configurations. Rod configurations are realizations of rank two incidence geometries as points (joints) and straight lines (rods) in the Euclidean plane, such that the lines move as rigid bodies, connected at the points. Note that not all incidence geometries have such realizations. We show that under the assumptions that the rod configuration exists and is sufficiently generic, its infinitesimal rigidity is equivalent to the infinitesimal rigidity of generic frameworks of the graph defined by replacing each rod by a cone over its point set. To put this into context, the molecular conjecture states that the infinitesimal rigidity of rod configurations realizing 2-regular hypergraphs is determined by the rigidity of generic body and hinge frameworks realizing the same hypergraph. This conjecture was proven by Jackson and Jordán in the plane, and by Katoh and Tanigawa in arbitrary dimension. Whiteley proved a version of the molecular conjecture for hypergraphs of arbitrary degree that have realizations as independent body and joint frameworks. Our result extends his result to hypergraphs that do not necessarily have realizations as independent body and joint frameworks, under the assumptions listed above.

In this article we explore the rigidity of realizations of incidence geometries consisting of points and rigid rods: rod configurations. We survey previous results on the rigidity of structures that are related to rod configurations, discuss how to find realizations of incidence geometries as rod configurations, and how this relates to the 2-plane matroid. We also derive further sufficient conditions for the minimal rigidity of k-uniform rod configurations and give an example of an infinite family of minimally rigid 3-uniform rod configurations failing the same conditions. Finally, we construct v3-configurations that are flexible in the plane, and show that there are flexible v3-configurations for all sufficiently large values of v.