Abstract: Robot compliant behavior means that the robot can dynamically adjust its own motion strategy, so as to show certain compliance to the physical interaction from human beings or environments.We review the control methods for robot compliant behavior. Firstly, the robot compliant control methods are classified according to different control loops. Then, the methods implemented in motion control loop, path planning loop and task scheduling loop are collected and summarized. The different characteristics of robot compliance brought by each method are analyzed. Finally, several typical applications of robot compliant control are summarized, and the future trend of robot compliant control technology is prospected, in order to provide new ideas and directions for the research of robot compliant control.