AN INTERACTIVE, REALISTIC COMPUTER GRAPHICS SIMULATION PACKAGE FOR ROBOTIC MANIPULATORS HAS BEEN DEVELOPED. THREE PUMA ROBOT MANIPULATORS AND TWO EXISTING ROBOTIC WORK CELLS HAVE BEEN IMPLEMENTED AS SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS. INTERACTION WITH THE PROGRAM IS POSSIBLE THROUGH USER-FRIENDLY POP-UP MENUS, INFORMATION-DISPLAY FIELDS, AND A UNIQUE ON-SCREEN TEACH PENDANT SIMULATION. AN INTERPRETER FOR THE ROBOTIC PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE VALII HAS BEEN INCORPORATED TO INTERFACE WITH THE GRAPHICS INTERFACE. THE INTERPRETER FEATURES A PROGRAM-LINE TRACE MODE TO EASE DETECTION OF LOGICAL ERRORS IN THE CONTROL PROGRAM. A MULTILEVEL COLLISION DETECTION ALGORITHM HAS BEEN DEVELOPED AND IMPLEMENTED. THE RESPONSE TIME OF THE ALGORITHM IS A FUNCTION OF THE PROXIMITY OF THE MODELLED MANIPULATOR TO OBSTACLES IN THE WORK SPACE. IT CORRESPONDS TO THE ACTUAL OPERATION OF THE REAL ROBOTIC WORK CELL.