A mechanistic description of the generation of whisker movements and its modulation by contact with objects is essential for understanding the control of whisking and vibrissal active touch. First, we study whisking in air and explore how facial-motoneuron spikes are translated, via an intrinsic muscle, to whisker movements. This is achieved by constructing, simulating, and analyzing a computational, biomechanical model of the motor plant. Our model predicts that contraction of a single intrinsic muscle results in movement of its two attached whiskers with different amplitudes; the relative amplitudes depend on the resting angles and on the attachment location of the intrinsic muscle on the anterior whisker. Second, we explore the effect of contact with object by developing and exploring models of bending whiskers. Preliminary results show that the real whisker bends more in response to contact than the model whisker.