The Franka Emika Robot: A Standard Platform in Robotics Research

Flexible, dynamic, and scalable robotic solutions are a core element of most factory-of-the-future concepts, which is envisioned to become a driving economic force in the industrialized world [1]. Since the introduction of the Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly robots in 1978 [2], which is based on the work of Victor Scheinman [3], the fundamental design and programming principles behind position-controlled industrial robots have been introduced. These high-precision positioning machines caged behind safety fences have remained successful since then [4]. Their main market has been automobile manufacturing, focusing on spot welding and painting. Then, more than 10 years ago, collaborative robots (cobots) entered the market and have become a significantly growing player. (Note that researching the basics of physical human–robot interaction has been pursued for decades [5]. In the 1990s, cobots, specially designed devices for physical assistance tasks, were introduced [6]. These were also called intelligence assist devices and are fundamentally different from what industry calls cobots nowadays.) These position-controlled devices are developed for human–robot coexistence by removing long-standing safety fences. Compared to classical industrial robots, the main advancements are their lightweight design, the capability to be taught kinesthetically via current control, and heavy-impact collision detection via current overload detection [7]. Besides implementing classical industrial positioning tasks in collaborative settings, machine tending has become a successful use case for cobots [8].