A controller for work piece-conveying robot having: a coordinate system storage section for storing one or more manual jog feed coordinate systems; a working area setting section for setting to a machine tool a working area to which the manual jog feed coordinate system is assigned; a hand position obtaining section for obtaining a current position of the robot hand at each specified sampling period; a determination section for determining whether or not the current position of the robot hand obtained by the hand position obtaining section is within the working area set by the working area setting section; and a coordinate system switching section for switching a present manual jog feed coordinate system to the manual jog feed coordinate system assigned to the working area if it is determined by the determination section that the current position of the robot hand is within the working area.