An improvement over the above concepts is offered by hybrid force/position control, which works with two separate control systems and can also be used with hard, inflexible contact surfaces. In hybrid force/position control, the space is divided into a constrained and an unconstrained space. The constrained space contains restrictions, for example in the form of obstacles, and does not allow free movement; the unconstrained space allows free movement. Each dimension of the space is either constrained or unconstrained.