A control device and a control method capable of realizing control based on a sequence program and control based on a numerical control program with a smaller number of process steps are provided. The control device that is capable of controlling a plurality of motors includes: a first program executing unit that executes a sequence program for each control cycle; a second program executing unit that calculates an instruction value for each motor in accordance with a numerical control program; and a state managing unit that manages a control state correlated with a group including a plurality of predetermined motors of the plurality of motors. The state managing unit updates the control state based on at least one of an instruction from the first program executing unit and an execution state of the numerical control program in the second program executing unit.

The invention relates to a method for controlling an automated work cell (2) including at least one robot arm (4) with at least three degrees of freedom (A1-A6), a programmable logic controller (6) suitable for developing a trajectory order (Om) based on an instruction to perform a trajectory of an application programmed in the programmable logic controller, a robot controller (10), suitable for steering the movement of the robot arm (4), and a communication bus (5) between the programmable logic controller (6) and the robot controller (10). The method comprises steps consisting of a) developing, in the programmable logic controller (6), a trajectory order (Om) including parameters for executing a trajectory defined at least between a departure point and an arrival point; b) transmitting the trajectory order (Om) developed in step a) to a computing unit (11) of the robot (10); c) developing, in the computing unit (11) of the robot controller (10) and based on the trajectory order (Om) transmitted in step b), elementary movement instructions for steering the robot arm (4) on the trajectory defined by the trajectory order (Om).