Impedance control
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Impedance control is a robot control strategy that regulates the dynamic relationship between a robot's motion and the forces it exchanges with its environment, rather than controlling position or force independently. Formalized by Hogan in the 1980s, it models the robot's end-effector behavior as a mechanical impedance — a desired mass-spring-damper system — so the robot responds compliantly to contact forces while still tracking a reference trajectory. In robotics, impedance control is widely applied in manipulation, physical human-robot interaction, rehabilitation exoskeletons, and legged locomotion, where rigid position control would cause dangerous force spikes upon contact. By tuning stiffness and damping parameters, engineers can make robots behave softly during gentle collaboration or stiffly during precise assembly. Variable and adaptive extensions allow these parameters to change online based on task demands or sensed interaction intent. Impedance control matters because it enables robots to operate safely alongside humans, handle contact transitions gracefully, and generalize to uncertain environments — capabilities that are essential as robots move from isolated industrial settings into everyday human environments.
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