Industrial robots are not autonomous enough to cope with unexpected changes in their environment. The suitability of generated handling programs strongly depends on the locations of the objects to be handled. To deal with such problems, a system was developed at the IWB (Germany). The system consists of a mobile robot, a 3D simulation system, a sensor system and a computer which controls and coordinates all the components mentioned before. When an object is to be handled its actual position is determined by the sensor system and transferred to the simulation system. Reality and simulation are matched and the handling program of the robot is adapted to the actual situation. Finally, the handling program is transmitted to the robot control and the handling is done by the robot.>

The planning of complex production plants makes considerable demands on the planning engineer, who usually has to pursue a wide variety of often conflicting sub-objectives simultaneously. The planner confronted with this task is hampered by a lack of suitable planning tools. 3D simulation can support the design of a three-dimensional manufacturing cell. However, even with 3D simulation, the search for an optimum solution remains relatively complex, because of the large number of interactive planning procedures involved. USIS (Universal Simulation System), a graphic robot simulation package, uses largely automated procedures to support the design engineer at all important stages of planning. This contribution presents some of these procedures.>