Programming in reverse

[RobotDuder]

Hello. Generally you would need to program from the computer to the robot to dictate what the robot does based upon what you write as a program.
 I wanted to know if you can "record" the robots movements by manually moving the robot and have the computer write code from those actions.

I'll give you an example.
Say I want a robotic arm to turn 160 degrees in one direction, open its hand and then close...
If I physically make the movements with the robotic arm by hand, could the computer pick up on that and "record" those actions for later use?
In other words,  is it possible to make the robot repeat actions based not on programming but off of memory.
What would I need to accomplish that task? It seems alot easier than writing programs and code.

[Razor Concepts]

Those system exists, but at the hobbyist level you will have to end up writing your own code to record the movements, which kind of defeats your purpose.

[Conscripted]

does gate designer do this?

[chelmi]

does gate designer do this?

Do you mean gait designer ? No as far as I know.

[paulstreats]

Of course you can do this, it shouldnt really be that much of a problem from the software point of view. You really need to be getting the correct electronics and hardware set up to be able to do it.

 You need a feedback device on each joint that you want to record(usually a potentiometer where the microcontroller can read it and determine where its set to).

 If your arm or whatever uses servos, then these do have potentiometers built in for feedback, unfortunately though the servos are quite mean and dont share this information with your microcontroller so you would need to hack the servos and create a connection yourself (I believe this was part of the goal of the "open servo" project if it is still going?).

 But yes it is entirely possible, but you need some kind of sensor to create the information before you can use do anything with it.

edit-------------

if it is servo controlled then this might be of interest http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9014