Franka Robotics
Franka Research 3 (FR3)
From a learning point of view
The FR3 is the research arm with real torque control: libfranka gives you 1 kHz joint-torque commands, which is what most RL and contact-rich methods assume. It replaced the Franka Panda in 2023 and keeps the same kinematics, so the very large body of Panda results (DROID, OpenVLA fine-tuning, HIL-SERL) transfers almost directly even though those papers name the Panda. The trade-off is the 3 kg payload and a less industrial build than a UR arm.
Good for learning
- 1 kHz torque control through libfranka
- Drop-in successor to the Panda so most Franka research transfers
- 7 DoF gives redundancy for reaching around fixtures
Watch out for
- 3 kg payload
- Research-grade rather than factory-grade
- Public datasets were collected on the Panda not the FR3
Simulators
Public datasets on this robot
Control & SDK
Franka Control Interface (FCI) with libfranka: 1 kHz joint-torque, joint-velocity or Cartesian commands. Official franka_ros2. Successor to the Panda; same kinematics, updated controller and safety. Requires the FCI feature to be unlocked for research use.
Specs
- Manufacturer
- Franka Robotics
- Category
- Arm
- Degrees of freedom
- 7
- Payload
- 3 kg
- Reach
- 855 mm
- Price
- Not disclosed
- Availability
- Shipping
Reviewed results on this robot (0)
No evidence rows match.