Process-oriented approach to an efficient off-line programming of industrial robots

A major problem when using off-line programming systems in today's robot-based workcells is that for more complex tasks like for example, arc welding, general coating or laser-based paint-removal, the support by these programming tools is poor. Particularly, together with intricate workpieces designed from free-form surfaces (e.g. NURBS) the programming of the desired robot motion still requires a lot of manual, teach-in like work by the programmer. This paper presents two approaches which now support the programmer in a comprehensive manner to solve this problem efficiently.