The kinematics of rolling contact for two surfaces of arbitrary shape rolling of each other is derived. Applying these kinematic equations to two planar multifingered hands manipulating some object of arbitrary shape, a scheme is presented for the control of these hands which is a generalization of the computed torque method of control of robot manipulators. In implementing the control, it is required that all applied forces lie within the friction cone of the object so that sliding does not occur. The theory is illustrated with graphic simulations of the control law applied to the system dynamics for two examples.>

The authors provide a dynamic control law that guarantees the tracking of a given end-effector trajectory and also provides for the control of the redundant joint velocity. The desired redundant joint velocity can then be specified to optimize a cost function over the configurations allowed by the extra degrees of freedom that achieve the given end-effector position.>