Franka Robotics, the German research-driven robotics pioneer from Munich, has announced that the robot Diana 7 from Agile Robots now supports the Franka Control Interface (FCI). This development paves the way for its application in research and academia. As a result, Franka Robotics has now added Diana 7 to its ecosystem, expanding its portfolio with a robot featuring greater reach and payload capacity.
Full access with FCI
The FCI software interface allows researchers direct access to the robot’s control algorithms – without being restricted by abstract software layers or filters. This allows the user to send real-time commands at 1 kHz, enabling precise control over position, velocity, and torque in joint space, as well as position, velocity, and force in cartesian space. Meanwhile, internal monitoring is kept to a minimum, only protecting the robot from self-damage. With FCI, researchers also gain access to a widespread community: Beyond the C++ interface libfranka, FCI supports integration with ROS, ROS 2, MATLAB and Simulink ecosystems.
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Along with its control capabilities, FCI also collects data that ensures precise documentation, improving traceability and providing valuable insights into robot control systems. These insights can be leveraged for optimization and analysis.
FCI is highly sought after in research, being applied in fields like force control, motion planning, grasping strategies, human-robot interaction, machine learning, and large-scale robotic model training.
New applications
The force-sensitive robot Diana 7 excels with its 7 axes, high precision, and intuitive software, which enables easy operation without requiring advanced programming skills.
The introduction of FCI enables users to bypass software layers and directly access the robot’s control algorithms, making Diana 7 suitable for research as well. As a result, Franka Robotics has added Diana 7 to its ecosystem and now lists it on its website. With a 7 kg payload and a 923 mm reach, Diana 7 enables applications that were previously unattainable with other robotic systems in the portfolio.
Source: PRNewswire
