Robot with smart trajectory recording

A welding system for generating a motion program, the welding system comprising:

• a robot having an arm and a calibrated tool center point (TCP);
• a welding tool connected to a distal end of the arm of the robot in a determined relation to the TCP;
• a programmable robot controller;
• a servo-mechanism apparatus configured to move the arm of the robot under the command of the programmable robot controller via a motion program;
• and
• an actuator operatively connected to the programmable robot controller,
• wherein the welding system is configured to allow an operator to activate the actuator and proceed to manually move the arm of the robot in a 3D space from a start point to a destination point, defining an operator path,
• wherein activation of the actuator commands the programmable robot controller to record a plurality of spatial points of the TCP in the 3D space as the operator manually moves the arm of the robot along the operator path, where the operator does not have to subsequently activate any actuator to cause the plurality of spatial points to be recorded along the operator path that the arm of the robot takes when manually moved by the operator, and
• wherein the programmable robot controller is configured to identify and eliminate extraneous spatial points from the plurality of spatial points as recorded, leaving a subset of the plurality of spatial points as recorded, where the extraneous spatial points are a result of extraneous movements of the arm of the robot by the operator.