In contrast to most hybrid vision/force research, this work uses eye-in-hand vision and force control. Mounting both sensors on the same end effector gives rise to new constraints, control issues and advantages, which are discussed in the paper. Four meaningful tool/camera configurations, being parallel or non-parallel endpoint closed-loop and fixed or variable endpoint open-loop are suggested. Several task examples (in 3D space), specified in the task frame formalism, illustrate the use of these four configurations. Experimental results for the fixed EOL configuration are presented.

Hybrid position/force control can be extended to incorporate visual servoing. Together with the task frame formalism (TFF), it forms the basis to easily model, implement and execute robotic tasks in an uncalibrated workspace, using traded, hybrid or shared vision/force control. This paper emphasizes shared control in which both vision and force simultaneously control a given task frame direction. Our work shows the usefulness and feasibility of a range of tasks using shared control. Moreover, it offers a framework based on the TFF to distinguish between different (and partly new) forms of shared control. Each basic form is illustrated by a robotic task with shared control in one direction. In addition, an extension to classify multi-dimensional shared control tasks is presented. As shown by the experimental results, the tasks at hand benefit from the shared control approach.