Virtual wedging in three dimensional peg insertion tasks

Abstract: "Quasi-static wedging of three-point contacts is investigated, wherein the concepts of virtual and redundant wedging due to a resultant force falling into a friction cone are proposed. We consider the fully-started case of a square peg and hole consisting of two point-surface contacts and one line-line contact. An analysis of the wedging diagram for this highly constrained configuration is carried out and compared to the two dimensional case. An approximate wedging diagram is constructed which shows that wedging of square pegs into square holes is more likely than cylindrical pegs and holes of similar sizes."