The paper presents a new generation of torque-controlled li ghtweight robots (LWR) developed at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics of the German Aerospace Center . I order to act in unstructured environments and interact with humans, the robots have design features an d co trol/software functionalities which distinguish them from classical robots, such as: load-to-weight ratio o f 1:1, torque sensing in the joints, active vibration damping, sensitive collision detection, as well as complia nt control on joint and Cartesian level. Due to the partially unknown properties of the environment, robustne s of planning and control with respect to environmental variations is crucial. After briefly describing the main har dware features, the paper focuses on showing how joint torque sensing (as a main feature of the robot) is conse quently used for achieving the above mentioned performance, safety, and robustness properties.