A robot system including: a robot manipulator that includes links interconnected by joints with degrees of freedom that are at least partially redundant to one another; an operating unit configured to detect an input from a user with respect to at least one selected direction of a force; and a control unit configured to receive the input from the operating unit, determine components of a transpose of a Jacobian matrix associated with a respective selected direction for a predetermined position and/or orientation of a distal end of the robot manipulator in a null space such that a first metric based on the components satisfies one of following criteria: unequal to zero, greater than a specified limit, or a maximum, and control the robot manipulator to move a subset of the links in the null space so as to assume a pose according to the components as determined.

A coordinated joint control system for controlling a coordinated joint motion system, e.g. an articulated arm of a hydraulic excavator blends automation of routine tasks with real-time human supervisory trajectory correction and selection. One embodiment employs a differential control architecture utilizing an inverse Jacobian. Modeling of the desired trajectory of the end effector in system space can be avoided. The disclosure includes image generation and matching systems.

In a method and system for operating a robot, at least one first direction, in which an external load acting on a reference is not reliably detectable on the basis of detected joint loads due to the vicinity to a singular position of the robot, is displayed as not being monitored on the basis of detected joint loads, and/or at least one second direction, in which an external load acting on the reference is reliably detectable on the basis of detected joint loads despite the vicinity to the singular position, is displayed as being monitorable on the basis of detected joint loads. Additionally or alternatively, at least one first direction is blocked if an external load acting on the reference in said direction is not reliably detectable on the basis of detected joint loads due to the vicinity to a singular position of the robot, and if at least one direction is blocked and multiple joints of the robot are simultaneously actuated, a monitoring process is carried out on the basis of detected joint loads for an external load acting on the reference in at least one second direction, in which an external load acting on the reference is reliably detectable on the basis of detected joint loads despite the vicinity to the singular position.