Abstract: The invention relates to a computer operated robot arm in which the operation of the robot arm is controlled by a first program defining absolute coordinate values of points necessary for a basic cycle of operation and at least one second program defining absolute coordinate values of points necessary for a conditional cycle of operation. After being initially defined a single time during a teaching mode of operation, the invention allows the second program to be recalled many times during the execution of the first program by merely utilizing an address code. Consequently, even though the second program is defined by absolute coordinate data, the second program may be used to control the robot arm at any spatial location.