The present invention is directed to a computer-implemented system and method for controlling robots (41) using a high-level programming language. The invention defines three programming languages, i.e., two high-level languages and a low-level language. A first high-level programming language is referred to herein as a robot scenario language (RSL) (20), in which an end-user (18) creates a robotic presentation (40) in terms of high-level behaviors or actions. A second high-level language, referred to herein as a robot behavior language (RBL) comprised of templates for describing how each high level behavior or action in the high-level (RSL) language is to be transformed or mapped into low-level language commands for directly controlling the hardware of the robot (41). The low-level language referred to herein as a robot hardware language (RHWL).