Common geared industrial robots call for force control methods with special properties such as good rejection of frictional disturbances, smoothness of corrective motions, and more. A new method is presented which meets these requirements
and provides a high control bandwidth. In the manner of hybrid control, directions of a task frame can be selected to be force, impedance or position controlled. A joint-based inner
position loop and a superimposed predictive force controller are used. Practical results include data from a robotic grinding facility. Here, the controller proved robustness and good performance under rough conditions.