Abstract
Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models have demonstrated strong performance across diverse robotic manipulation tasks, yet their predominantly vision-centric perception and position-controlled execution remain insufficient for contact-rich manipulation. Visual observations alone often provide limited evidence of contact onset and interaction magnitude, while position-control policies cannot respond compliantly to rapidly changing contact dynamics. To bridge both the perception and control gaps, we propose TAO-Force, a force-conditioned VLA framework that combines force-aware policy learning with contact-regulated execution. For force-aware perception, TAO-Force introduces Force-conditioned Feature-wise Linear Modulation (F-FiLM) to inject encoded force feedback into the representations of a frozen pretrained visual-language backbone while preserving its semantic priors. For responsive control, it employs a contact-gated fast-slow architecture, with a slow position-control branch tracking nominal trajectories during non-contact phases and a fast admittance-control branch regulating physical interaction during contact phases. Detailed analyses on a force-perception task and real-world evaluations across four contact-rich manipulation tasks validate the effectiveness and robustness of TAO-Force.
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- Open access
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Cite this article
APA 7
Gan, B., Wen, X., Zhao, Y., Cheng, B., Jia, W., Wang, Y., Yao, G., Gao, H., Tang, J., Zhao, L., & Ge, J. (2026). TAO-Force: Unifying Force-Aware Perception and Fast-Slow Control for Contact-Rich Manipulation. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/tao-force-unifying-force-aware-perception-and-fast-slow-control-for-contact-rich-manipulation
MLA 9
Gan, Bohan, et al. "TAO-Force: Unifying Force-Aware Perception and Fast-Slow Control for Contact-Rich Manipulation." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/tao-force-unifying-force-aware-perception-and-fast-slow-control-for-contact-rich-manipulation.
Chicago (author–date)
Gan, Bohan, Xuanzhang Wen, Yongsheng Zhao, Baoping Cheng, Wenhe Jia, Ye Wang, Gongxin Yao, Han Gao, Jingyao Tang, Lei Zhao, and Ji Ge. 2026. "TAO-Force: Unifying Force-Aware Perception and Fast-Slow Control for Contact-Rich Manipulation." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/tao-force-unifying-force-aware-perception-and-fast-slow-control-for-contact-rich-manipulation.
Harvard
Gan, B., Wen, X., Zhao, Y., Cheng, B., Jia, W., Wang, Y., Yao, G., Gao, H., Tang, J., Zhao, L. and Ge, J. (2026) 'TAO-Force: Unifying Force-Aware Perception and Fast-Slow Control for Contact-Rich Manipulation', Available at: https://omanscience.com/en/articles/tao-force-unifying-force-aware-perception-and-fast-slow-control-for-contact-rich-manipulation.
Vancouver
Gan B, Wen X, Zhao Y, Cheng B, Jia W, Wang Y, et al. TAO-Force: Unifying Force-Aware Perception and Fast-Slow Control for Contact-Rich Manipulation. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/tao-force-unifying-force-aware-perception-and-fast-slow-control-for-contact-rich-manipulation
IEEE
B. Gan, X. Wen, Y. Zhao, B. Cheng, W. Jia, Y. Wang, G. Yao, H. Gao, J. Tang, L. Zhao, and J. Ge, "TAO-Force: Unifying Force-Aware Perception and Fast-Slow Control for Contact-Rich Manipulation," https://omanscience.com/en/articles/tao-force-unifying-force-aware-perception-and-fast-slow-control-for-contact-rich-manipulation.