A Survey of Vision and Force Guidance in Robot Manipulation

This manuscript provides a survey of seminal and state-of-the-art methods for visual guidance and force control in robotic manipulation, with particular interest in combined vision and force methods. Other reviews outline similar methods; however, they present outdated approaches and thus lack recent pertinent breakthroughs. The purpose of this report, therefore, is to provide a holistic review of the most recent research advances in vision and force integration for robotic manipulation and the supporting prior art they rely on. In this document, both visual guidance and force control methods are explored from a historical perspective. Additionally, the general technical approaches to both modes are addressed, and the categorization and classification of visual and force control methods are broken down at a deeper level of granularity. Current use-cases for combined vision and force control are outlined and distinguished from one another in a comprehensive table. Additionally, a survey of the distinct technical methods for combined control schemes is presented. This outline serves not only as a summary of the current landscape in combined vision and force control, but also as a tool for researchers to select ideal visual, force, or combined visual and force guidance methods in technical implementation for robot manipulation.