Mobility of a class of perforated polyhedra

The investigation was inspired by a question raised by Walter Whiteley about a perforated polyhedron with a unique mechanism reducing octahedral to tetrahedral symmetry. It turns out that the perforated polyhedron with highest (Oh) point-group symmetry based on subdivision of the cube is mechanically equivalent to the Hoberman Switch-Pitch toy. Both objects exhibit an exactly similar mechanism that preserves Td subgroup symmetry over a finite range; this mechanism survives in two variants suggested by Bob Connelly and Barbara Heys that have the same contact graph, but lower initial maximum symmetry.