Control

Passivity-Based Control

Passivity-based control is a design methodology that shapes a system's energy storage and dissipation so the closed loop remains passive, meaning it never outputs more energy than it has received. Because interconnections of passive systems are guaranteed stable, the approach yields controllers that remain well-behaved when a robot contacts unknown environments or humans, and it underpins stable bilateral teleoperation and interaction control.

Why it matters for physical AI

Contact with unmodeled environments is where robots most often become unstable; passivity provides a principled robustness guarantee that holds regardless of what the robot touches, which is invaluable for physical human-robot interaction.