Agile Robots released new features on Diana 7 to fully support Franka Control Interface

Munich, 27.02.2025 – Agile Robots has announced that the robot Diana 7 now supports the Franka Control Interface (FCI). This development paves the way for its application in research and academia. As a result, Agile Robots has now added Diana 7 to its research and academia ecosystem, expanding its portfolio products into new domains with high force-torque sensitivity, great reachability 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.

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 in research and academic areas.

 

About Franka Robotics

Franka Robotics is a German, research-driven robotics company headquartered in Munich and operating globally. Founded in 2016, it is part of the Agile Robots SE group since 2023. Our mission is to enable the growing community of robotics and AI professionals to shape a pivotal moment in human evolution: giving AI a robot body. By developing the reference robotics platform, Franka Robotics drives continuous advancements in the field, fostering collaboration, creativity, and knowledge sharing among robotics and AI professionals worldwide.

Find out more at: https://www.franka.de