Analysis of deformable object handling

A manipulated deformable object is viewed as an underactuated mechanical system. In this context controllability issues are discussed and results on the nature of the constraints and the controllability properties of an important class of deformable objects being modeled with finite elements are stated. For this class of deformable objects the results permit to circumvent the usual procedure of calculating Lie brackets to establish a base for the associated Lie algebra, and answers the question of determining the kind of constraints imposed on the system in a straightforward algebraic way. Inequality constraints associated to material strength limitations are also included