Today we are seeing the beginning of Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM). However, we have yet to transform these concepts into practice engineering disciplines. The role of the robot in CIM is also new, and we are beginning to see robot manufactures and capabilities which will meet the challenges of CIM.
The robot is a major component of CIM technology. It appears to be the nucluous around which the technology is forming. Hence, the objective of this paper is to investigate the importance of the integration of industrial robots (IR) into CIM, thus clarifying one of the most important key technolo-gies of the high level automated production within the Factory of the Future (FOF).