Force Control vs. Position Control in Manipulation

Telling a robot arm exactly where to go is very different from telling it exactly how hard to push.

Position control commands a robot to move to a specific location or joint configuration, and is what most industrial robot arms use for repetitive, predictable tasks. Force control instead commands a specific force or torque output, letting the arm's actual position vary in response to contact with the environment.

Why manipulation often needs both

Reaching toward an object is naturally a position-control problem — you know roughly where you want the hand to go. Actually making contact — inserting a peg, wiping a surface, gently placing something down — often works better under force control, where the robot maintains a target contact force and lets position adjust naturally rather than rigidly forcing a pre-planned trajectory into unexpected resistance.

Hybrid and impedance control

Many manipulation controllers use hybrid control (position control along some directions, force control along others) or impedance control (behaving like a programmable spring-damper system, blending position and force behavior continuously) to get the benefits of both without switching abruptly between two separate control modes.