Industrial Robot Programming Methods: A Scoping Review

Easy-to-use programming methods for robotic manufacturing systems are a key element in enabling a wider audience to benefit from increasing automation. This paper provides an overview of current programming methods for industrial mating operations. More specifically, the review focuses on programming methods for welding and assembly tasks. While welding is mainly concerned with the exact definition of the free space trajectories, assembly tasks revolve around the contact with the environment. Thus, the two tasks at hand not only represent two of the most common robotic applications, but also two distinct groups of operations that place very different demands on the programming interface.