1. A robotic control device for manipulating a hand held tool, comprising: a gripper, the gripper being mobile in at least one degree of freedom; a plurality of tactile sensors attached with the gripper, each sensor operable for generating tactile sensory data upon grasping a tool based on the interface between the tool and the corresponding tactile sensor, a computer communicatively connected with both the gripper and the tactile sensors, the computer having a memory and a data processor, the memory encoded with instructions, that when executed, cause the data processor to perform operations of: causing the gripper to grasp the tool and move the tool into contact with a surface; via a control command, causing the gripper to perform a movement with the tool against the surface to generate tactile sensory data; performing a dimensionality reduction of the tactile sensory data to generate a low-dimensional representation of the tactile sensory data; learning a relationship between the low-dimensional representation of the tactile sensory data and the control command to generate a sensory-motor mapping, by performing operations of: collecting data points that include corresponding pairs of sensory input signal data and control commands to form a joint sensory-motor space; identifying a lower dimensional manifold embedded in the joint sensory-motor space that represents the data points; identifying points on the lower dimensional manifold that have a sensory component that matches a given sensory input signal; projecting the identified points onto a motor sub-space to identify control commands as reflected in the sensory motor mapping; and generating a series of control commands in a closed-loop based on the sensory-motor mapping to manipulate the tool against the surface.