ACT: a robot programming environment

The authors describe ACT, a system designed to plan and monitor robot motions using a geometric representation of the environment. The goal in developing ACT was to design a system which could be used in industrial applications as well as a software basis to develop new robot programming techniques in the academic environment. ACT is intended to provide the user with advanced programming tools such as inline path planning and graphic monitoring of robot tasks. The project included developments not directly related to robotics but which were essential to enhance these new programming techniques. For example, a special user interface was developed to specify the robot tasks as well as to interface with existing CAD modelers. The authors present the technical choices made in developing the system and the most technically innovative parts of the system