Control of manipulation with dextrous hands

Abstract This paper deals with a technique for the control of contact forces between the links of a robotic hand and an object. The goal is to control the position of the object while minimizing the consumption of power and the danger of slippage. The general problem of tracking arbitrary trajectories of the grasped object is considered first, and a feedback linearization technique is discussed that theoretically solves the problem. This technique is however hardly feasible in practice. An alternative practical controller for the stabilization of the grasp about equilibrium configurations of the object, in spite of external disturbances of bounded intensity, is presented.