Vision-Force Admittance Learning for Peg Insertion into a Movable Hole

Precise manipulation in dynamic environments, whether induced by a mobile robot base or a target with unknown motion, remains a major challenge in robotics. Manipulation in dynamic environments introduces substantial uncertainty, which fundamentally conflicts with the tight precision requirement of precise tasks such as peg-in-the-hole. We propose a Vision-Force Admittance Learning (VFAL) framework that fuses asynchronous visual feedback with a high-frequency force-based model, using visual pose estimations as a regularization term. VFAL adapts insertion strategies online to dynamic motion while maintaining millimeter-level precision. To obtain robust, low-frequency pose information, we employ state-of-the-art vision foundation models for visual pose estimation. Additionally, we incorporate failure recovery mechanisms to enhance overall robustness. We validate our approach in real-world experiments, demonstrating high success rates and strong adaptability to various pegs and dynamic environments.

Recommended citation: Chen, Y., Liang, Y., Xu, Y., Fang, I., Kidder, C., Wang, H.-P., Haque, R., Zhang, Y., & Feng, C. (2026). Vision-Force Admittance Learning for Peg Insertion into a Movable Hole. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L).
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