A hybrid position and force control system for a robotic manipulator. A displacement error signal of an end effector such as a robotic hand is multiplied by a pseudo-inverse of a matrix product of a selection matrix and a Jacobian matrix to provide a joint displacement error signal in the coordinates of the various joints of the manipulator. The system may be tuned for obstacle avoidance and the like by means of a joint tuning signal having displacement and force components each produced by multiplying a user-provided tuning signal by a matrix difference between an identity matrix and a matrix product of a pseudo-inverse of the Jacobian mattrix and the Jacobian matrix.