Programming of a robotic arm using a motion capture system

A system comprising:

• a demonstration tool;
• a robotic device;
• at least one camera;
• and
• a control system configured to:
• receive data from the at least one camera indicative of position of the demonstration tool;
• based on the received data, determine a motion path of the demonstration tool, wherein the motion path comprises a sequence of positions of the demonstration tool;
• determine a replication control path for the robotic device, wherein the replication control path comprises one or more robot movements that cause the robotic device to move a robot tool through a motion path that corresponds to the motion path of the demonstration tool;
• cause the robotic device to move the robot tool using the one or more robot movements within the replication control path.

A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein instructions, that when executed by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform functions comprising:

• receiving data from one or more cameras indicative of position of a demonstration tool;
• based on the received data, determining a motion path of the demonstration tool, wherein the motion path comprises a sequence of positions of the demonstration tool;
• determining a replication control path for a robotic device, wherein the replication control path comprises one or more robot movements that cause the robotic device to move a robot tool through a motion path that corresponds to the motion path of the demonstration tool;
• causing the robotic device to move the robot tool using the one or more robot movements within the replication control path.