A Comparative Study of Robot Languages

Efficient communication with industrial robots is a key factor in the success of contemporary programmable automation, but robot languages-the means of communication-have commonly been developed in an ad hoc manner to meet the needs of a particular robot and application. Thus, we currently have almost as many robot languages as robots. To formulate recommendations for an efficient robot language of the future, this article reviews and evaluates many of the RLs now in use or under development in industrial or academic environments. Table I compares the industrial robots for which the languages were developed, and Table 2 contains background information on the 14 selected languages, * which are identified below.