The chapters in this book present an excellent exposition of recent developments in both robotics and nonlinear control centering around "hyper-redundancy", highly oscillatory inputs, optimal control, exterior differential systems, and the use of generic loops.

The chapters in this book present an excellent exposition of recent developments in both robotics and nonlinear control centering around "hyper-redundancy", highly oscillatory inputs, optimal control, exterior differential systems, and the use of generic loops.

The role of compliant fingerpads in grasping and manipulation: Identification and control.- Event-based planning and control for robotic systems: Theory and implementation.- The kinematics of hyper-redundant robots.- Line-integral estimates and motion planning using the continuation method.- Kinematic path planning for robots with holonomic and nonholonomic constraints.- A general approach to path planning for systems without drift.- Discontinuous stabilization of Brockett's canonical driftless system.- On feedback linearization of robot manipulators and Riemannian curvature.- Averaging and energy methods for robust open-loop control of mechanical systems.- Exterior differential systems in control and robotics.

This IMA Volume in Mathematics and its Applications ESSAYS ON MATHEMATICAL ROBOTICS is based on the proceedings of a workshop that was an integral part of the 1992-93 IMA program on "Control Theory." The workshop featured a mathematicalintroductionto kinematics and fine motion planning; dynam ics and control of kinematically redundant robot arms including snake-like robots, multi-fingered robotic hands; methods of non-holonomic motion planning for space robots, multifingered robot hands and mobile robots; new techniques in analytical mechanics for writing the dynamics of com plicated multi-body systems subject to constraints on angular momentum or other non-holonomic constraints. In addition to papers representing proceedings of the Workshop, this volume contains several longer papers surveying developments of the intervening years. We thank John Baillieul, Shankar S. Sastry, and Hector J. Sussmann for organizing the workshop and editing the proceedings. We also take this opportunity to thank the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Office, whose financial support made the workshop possible. Avner Friedman Willard Miller, Jr.