Abstract
Provided are a robot control device and a plasma cutting method that are capable of appropriately cutting a workpiece at the cutting position on the cutting surface of the workpiece while keeping a constant distance between the tip of a torch and the surface of the workpiece. A robot control device includes: a robot control unit that controls an operation of a plasma cutting robot according to a teaching program; a distance calculation unit that calculates a distance between a torch and a cutting position on a cutting target; a posture calculation unit that calculates a posture of the torch relative to a cutting surface that contains the cutting position on the cutting target; and a correction unit that corrects at least a position of the torch in an adaptive direction orthogonal to the cutting surface on a basis of the distance calculated by the distance calculation unit and the posture calculated by the posture calculation unit, to keep a cutting distance for plasma-cutting the cutting target. The robot control unit controls the operation of the plasma cutting robot with at least the position of the torch corrected by the correction unit.