Industrial applications of virtual reality. Robot application planning.

The paper describes the development of a virtual reality testbed for robotics. The new interfaces between operator and robot simulation system and the real robot improve the interaction between man, computer and machine: Free path teaching of robots is possible off-line by means of advanced simulation. Additionally, free path definition of the real robot TCP parallel to the operator's hand is possible even in real-time (all 6 degrees of freedom). Spatial imagination in the robot simulation is better than using conventional graphic screens.