A computer-implemented method for selecting a robotic tool path for a manufacturing processing system to execute a material processing sequence in three-dimensional space, the method comprising: providing to a computer a computer-readable product including robotic system data associated with physical parameters of a robotic tool handling system and workpiece data for a workpiece to be processed by the manufacturing processing system, the workpiece data relating to a processing path of a tool connected to the robotic tool handling system along the workpiece, the workpiece data including a tool path program specified by a set of motion commands, at a plurality of path points along the processing path between a start point and an end point of the path, that the tool must make in order to execute the material processing sequence on the workpiece; generating a start point and an end point of the processing path; generating a plurality of possible robotic tool paths to be performed to move the tool along the processing path between the start point and the end point, wherein the generation of the plurality of possible robotic tool paths is based on the availability of an extra degree of freedom of the robotic system compared to those of the provided processing path of the tool connected to the robotic tool handling system along the workpiece; based on the robotic system data and/or the workpiece data, identifying one or more obstacles, or an absence of obstacles, associated with the robotic tool paths; comparing robotic tool paths based on the extra degree of freedom of the robotic system as the tool moves from the start point to the end point; and based on the identified obstacles, determining feasible tool paths, between the start point and the end point that avoid the obstacles, that can be obtained by adjusting the extra degree of freedom of the robotic system, wherein the feasible tool paths are determined by discretizing a search space of possible robot postures into a grid of suitable resolution and generating a set of channels between the start point and end point around the set of obstacles, where each channel is a subspace of the discretized grid and represents a set of homotopic feasible robot-paths around the set of obstacles, wherein each of the channels is in a zone in a two-dimensional representation of a range of the extra degree of freedom along the processing path that is free of obstacles. providing to a computer a computer-readable product including robotic system data associated with physical parameters of a robotic tool handling system and workpiece data for a workpiece to be processed by the manufacturing processing system, the workpiece data relating to a processing path of a tool connected to the robotic tool handling system along the workpiece, the workpiece data including a tool path program specified by a set of motion commands, at a plurality of path points along the processing path between a start point and an end point of the path, that the tool must make in order to execute the material processing sequence on the workpiece; generating a start point and an end point of the processing path; generating a plurality of possible robotic tool paths to be performed to move the tool along the processing path between the start point and the end point, wherein the generation of the plurality of possible robotic tool paths is based on the availability of an extra degree of freedom of the robotic system compared to those of the provided processing path of the tool connected to the robotic tool handling system along the workpiece; based on the robotic system data and/or the workpiece data, identifying one or more obstacles, or an absence of obstacles, associated with the robotic tool paths; comparing robotic tool paths based on the extra degree of freedom of the robotic system as the tool moves from the start point to the end point; and based on the identified obstacles, determining feasible tool paths, between the start point and the end point that avoid the obstacles, that can be obtained by adjusting the extra degree of freedom of the robotic system, wherein the feasible tool paths are determined by discretizing a search space of possible robot postures into a grid of suitable resolution and generating a set of channels between the start point and end point around the set of obstacles, where each channel is a subspace of the discretized grid and represents a set of homotopic feasible robot-paths around the set of obstacles, wherein each of the channels is in a zone in a two-dimensional representation of a range of the extra degree of freedom along the processing path that is free of obstacles.