A control paradigm for general purpose manipulation systems

The authors' goal is the creation of a framework within which independent objectives of a manipulation process can be used to direct a manipulation strategy. The set of contacts that are applied to a task can be partitioned into subsets with independent objectives. A system of this sort is flexible enough to manage large numbers of contacts and to address manipulation tasks that require the removal and replacement of fingers. A simulator has been constructed, and results of its application to position synthesis for initial grasps is presented. The manipulation testbed under construction at the University of Utah using the Utah/MIT dextrous hand are discussed.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">></ETX>