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.MAJOR AN OVERVIEW OF AL

This short paper cannot cover the subject of AL with any depth;
a complete discussion may be found in %4AL, A Programming System
for Automation%*, Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Memo
AIM-243, Stanford University Computer Science Department Report
STAN-CS-74-456, by the authors of this paper.

.MINOR INTRODUCTION

The development of robot manipulators such as the "Unimate" has led
to the belief that these tools are in some way general-purpose
devices and that they might be programmed like a computer.  As a
general-purpose programmable device, the robot manipulator 
provides a possible answer to the need for automation of assembly in batch
manufacturing industries where small production runs rule out
the use of special-purpose equipment. 

We are implementing a system called AL for small scale batch manufacturing where
setup time is the key factor. We rely on a symbolic database
and previously-defined assembly primitives to minimize
programming time. The system is capable of high-level planning
and intelligent interpretation of user defined primitives. 
The principal aim of this work is not to provide a factory floor
programming system but rather 
to design a language which will be
a tool for
investigating the difficulty, necessary programming time, and
feasibility of writing programs to control assembly operations.