Whether they are asked to polish or assemble parts, clean the house or open doors, the future generation of robots will have to cope with contact tasks under uncertainty in a stable and safe manner. Obtaining a controlled contact motion under uncertainty is still a major challenge for the robotics community. At present most research groups focus on one of the subcomponents (i.e., modeling, planning, estimation or control) of the system, and no overall system is developed yet. This paper presents a literature survey of the state-of-the-art of the subcomponents and points to the need for effective integration of those components.