Contact-rich Manipulation

Contact-rich manipulation tasks are those where purposeful, sustained contact between the robot and environment is essential to task success — such as peg-in-hole insertion, screwing bolts, folding fabric, or kneading dough. These tasks are challenging because small positional errors produce large force spikes, and stiff position controllers can damage parts or destabilize the robot. Successful approaches combine compliant control (impedance or admittance control), force-torque sensing, and learned policies that anticipate and exploit contact.