Abstract
Developing robots capable of fine manipulation skills is of major importance in order to build truly assistive robots. These robots need to be compliant in their actuation and control in order to operate safely in human environments. Manipulation tasks imply complex contact interactions with an unstructured environment, and involve reasoning about the forces and torques to be applied. In order for robots to co-exist in an environment with humans, safety is a prime consideration. Therefore, touching and manipulating an unstructured world requires a certain level of compliance while achieving the intended tasks accurately