BabaCAD Robotics Web (BRW) is an industrial robot simulator and offline-programming tool that runs in any browser, with no installation (https://www.babacad.com/robotics/web). Students program 6-axis arms with line, arc and spline moves, build multi-robot cells and script everything through a JavaScript plugin API.
Version 4.0 adds three things I think matter for teaching:
- AI Assistant: students describe a task in plain English (e.g. “move the tool from the home pose to [1000, 0, 0] along a line”) and it writes a ready program that runs in the simulator, or explains how to do something in the app. It is in an experimental phase for educators, enabled with an activation code. I’d be glad to send you one with AI credits.
- Mill / Sculpt (robot CAM): import a target STL, put a blank on the rotary table, and BRW generates the robot milling program (arm, linear rail and table moving together) and carves the workpiece live.
- Singularity detection: Cartesian moves are checked for singular or badly conditioned poses before they run, and the problem points are drawn in red on the path. The same check is available in the JavaScript plugin API.