The automation of polishing and grinding tasks by robots is advisable, since they are repetitive tasks generally done in unhealthy conditions. Nevertheless, robot programming is difficult, tedious and time-consuming. Moreover, batch sizes are usually not very large, which requires an often reprogramming of the cell. To cope with this problem, this paper presents a tool to automatically program a robot from a graphical high level description of the task. First, a graphical user interface allows to easily specify the polishing curves over a CAD model of the part. The type of abrasive bands used and the force to be exerted is also specified by the user. Second, given the location of the polishing bands where each operation must be performed and a description of the cell, a robot program is generated to perform the polishing trajectories in the optimum sequence, the paths between trajectories being collision-free.