A control strategy based on the relative position of the armature and body, and an actuator which has the necessary features to take advantage of this approach, is developed. This strategy provides a modular approach to vibration isolation because it acts independently of the dynamics of any attached structures. While the system is unable to match the peak performance of adaptive multiple-input multiple-output controllers, it provides significant broadband isolation with a simple, local controller. This control can be implemented within the actuator, providing more sophisticated controllers with an actuator that has less force transmission than conventional devices. This offers the potential of additional gains in isolation performance.