A method of switching a control facility of a robot over to a manual guidance mode of operation (H) for moving the robot by manual application of forces and / or torques to the robot, wherein joint forces and / or joint torques ( τ mess ) are detected directly respectively by means of force sensors or torque sensors on drives, or indirectly on the basis of detected currents or voltages of the drives; joint torques which are applied by a force that acts externally on the robot or a torque that acts externally on the robot are determined (S10) on the basis of the detected joint forces or, respectively, detected joint torques, and on the basis of joint torques that are estimated on the basis of a model of the robot; and a check is carried out (S20) as to whether switching over of the control facility to the manual guidance mode of operation has been commanded; wherein as a result of the switching over and as a function of: - target joint forces and / or target joint torques (τ d ), which are specified by the control facility that is connected to the robot in terms of signal communication, an error reaction (R) is triggered (S40), which comprises - a restriction of a speed of movement of the robot and / or a restriction of a working space of the robot, in particular a restriction of a joint-based working space or a Cartesian working space of the robot and / or - an increase of a virtual damping and / or - the outputting of an error signal. joint forces and / or joint torques ( τ mess ) are detected directly respectively by means of force sensors or torque sensors on drives, or indirectly on the basis of detected currents or voltages of the drives; joint torques which are applied by a force that acts externally on the robot or a torque that acts externally on the robot are determined (S10) on the basis of the detected joint forces or, respectively, detected joint torques, and on the basis of joint torques that are estimated on the basis of a model of the robot; and a check is carried out (S20) as to whether switching over of the control facility to the manual guidance mode of operation has been commanded; wherein as a result of the switching over and as a function of: - target joint forces and / or target joint torques (τ d ), which are specified by the control facility that is connected to the robot in terms of signal communication, - target joint forces and / or target joint torques (τ d ), which are specified by the control facility that is connected to the robot in terms of signal communication, an error reaction (R) is triggered (S40), which comprises - a restriction of a speed of movement of the robot and / or a restriction of a working space of the robot, in particular a restriction of a joint-based working space or a Cartesian working space of the robot and / or - an increase of a virtual damping and / or - the outputting of an error signal. - a restriction of a speed of movement of the robot and / or a restriction of a working space of the robot, in particular a restriction of a joint-based working space or a Cartesian working space of the robot and / or - an increase of a virtual damping and / or - the outputting of an error signal. <EOS>