A paradigm shift in offline programming of robots

CAD-based offline programming has the potential to take into account design changes to a certain extent, avoiding time-consuming and thus expensive reprogramming after an engineering design change.

Current offline-programming (OLP) solutions are rather generic and support the user only in positioning of the robot on a point-by-point basis with a virtual teach-in like approach. Support of the user with respect to process-specific knowledge is missing. This is important in that advanced robotics applications such as drilling and 3-D surface coating can easily reach a couple of thousand working positions.

To manage those positions with generic OLP solutions takes a lot of time, reducing the economic benefit of the robotic automation approach. Significant improvements in offline programming are needed to make the economic case for robotics automation.