Control pre-imaging for multifingered grasp synthesis

This paper discusses the issues involved in developing a grasp controller, within the framework of control composition, and introduces control pre-imaging. Pre-imaging is a design technique for augmenting the performance of a baseline controller through the opportune activation of metalevel control actions. Such metalevel control actions are activated whenever the current system state is associated to past unsuccessful patterns of interaction between the existing predictable, stable controller and the environment. The technique is illustrated by the implementation of a grasp controller capable of generating grasp configurations through successive, local refinements, given the position and normal of each contact