A medical system comprises a catheter containing a mechanical system that is remotely operable to control a distal tip of the catheter. The medical system also comprises a sensor configured to at least partly measure a pose of the distal tip and a control system coupled to the mechanical system. The control system includes a memory operable to store parameters of a working configuration of the distal tip of the catheter and a plurality of operating modes including a holding mode in which the control system operates the mechanical system to actively maintain the working configuration of the distal tip based on feedback from the sensor. The control system also includes a plurality of modules. During activation of the holding mode, the plurality of modules is configured to sense a current pose of the distal tip and determine a difference between the current pose and the working configuration. The difference is due to an external disturbance. Without user input, the plurality of modules is also configured to operate the mechanical system to move the catheter to minimize the difference between the current pose and the working configuration.