An environment for more easily programming a robot

Through the use of a graphical user interface, a database, higher-level (more abstract) commands, and the standard C programming language, an environment has been developed that simplifies the programming of a robot. Programs can be either interpreted for ease of use or compiled for run-time efficiency. The graphical user interface changes the state of the system (to move manipulators, change speeds and accelerations, etc.), and stores or retrieves data (locations, vision processes, etc.) from the database. The database separates the data from the instructions in a program. It stores instantiations of data structures that are used by the higher-level commands such as pickupPart and placePart. The higher-level commands as well as the rest of the environment are written in C. The SMALL (Sawyer-motor multirobot assembly workcell) programming environment provides power and flexibility, and the effort required to program a robot for a given task is minimized