Articulation Body vs pure GameObject hierarchy

Hi,

we started our Game4Automation product, available in the Unity Asset Store, before Unity's Articulation Bodies were available. Due to the limitations of normal PhysX joints, which made it impossible to connect the robot axis to a real robot controller and reach the target position stably and with high accuracy, we implemented our position controlled "Drives" based on a normal game object hierarchy. The structure is the same as when using Unity Articulation Bodies nowadays. For us, everything works fine and we have seen no problems with our approach so far. Recently we have also implemented support for Articulation Bodies (you can find an example with ABB Robot Studio here:

), and that works well too. The question for me at this point is:
- What are the concrete advantages of using Articulation Bodies - is it just that we don't violate physical laws and can measure the force?
- If we set the target of an Articulation Bodies Drive like in ABB Robot Studio, I assume that in Unity the current position is always a little behind the desired position - right?

Best regards
Thomas