Method for the control and regulation of a robot by taking into consideration ambient contacts, wherein the robot comprises at least two parts, which are connected via an articulated joint that can be driven by an actuator, having the following steps: - determining and storing a time-dependent one-dimensional or multi-dimensional variable G(t) by means of a sensor system, by means of which the temporal influence of one or a plurality of external contact forces F ext and/or of one or a plurality of external torques M ext on the parts can be described, - providing a condition B for the variable G(t), - provided the condition B has not been fulfilled by a G(t) at a time t 0, a feature vector (G(t)) is determined for the determined variable via a time interval T = [t a, t e], with t a = beginning of the time interval, t e = end of the time interval, t 0 ∈ T and t 0 < t e, said feature vector M (G(t)) comprising the following components: - a median or average value, G(t), within the time interval T, - a minimum and a maximum value, G(t), within the time interval T, - a deviation, G(t), from the median or average value within the time interval T, - a signal width, G(t), within the time interval T, - a frequency spectrum, G(t), within the time interval T, and - one or a plurality of characteristic frequencies of the frequency spectrum, - classification of the feature vector M (G(t)) based on the specified categories, which each indicate a contact type of one of the parts or of the articulated joint to an object of an ambient environment, which are each conveyed by corresponding contact forces F ext and/or external contact torques M ext for generating a classification result KE, and - control and/or regulation of the actuator for times t > t 0 dependent on the classification result KE. - determining and storing a time-dependent one-dimensional or multi-dimensional variable G(t) by means of a sensor system, by means of which the temporal influence of one or a plurality of external contact forces F ext and/or of one or a plurality of external torques M ext on the parts can be described, - providing a condition B for the variable G(t), - provided the condition B has not been fulfilled by a G(t) at a time t 0, a feature vector (G(t)) is determined for the determined variable via a time interval T = [t a, t e], with t a = beginning of the time interval, t e = end of the time interval, t 0 ∈ T and t 0 < t e, said feature vector M (G(t)) comprising the following components: - a median or average value, G(t), within the time interval T, - a minimum and a maximum value, G(t), within the time interval T, - a deviation, G(t), from the median or average value within the time interval T, - a signal width, G(t), within the time interval T, - a frequency spectrum, G(t), within the time interval T, and - one or a plurality of characteristic frequencies of the frequency spectrum, - a median or average value, G(t), within the time interval T, - a minimum and a maximum value, G(t), within the time interval T, - a deviation, G(t), from the median or average value within the time interval T, - a signal width, G(t), within the time interval T, - a frequency spectrum, G(t), within the time interval T, and - one or a plurality of characteristic frequencies of the frequency spectrum, - classification of the feature vector M (G(t)) based on the specified categories, which each indicate a contact type of one of the parts or of the articulated joint to an object of an ambient environment, which are each conveyed by corresponding contact forces F ext and/or external contact torques M ext for generating a classification result KE, and - control and/or regulation of the actuator for times t > t 0 dependent on the classification result KE.