Franka Robotics Franka Research 3

How Franka Research 3 compares within +/- 5 kg payload.

Research-only platform. Not a production cobot. Listed for completeness but should not be benchmarked against production-class arms.

The Franka Research 3 itself is not plotted below. We have no price for it we can stand behind, and we would rather show a gap than draw a bar off a number we invented. The arms around it in the payload band are shown for context.

Why this cobot costs what it costs.

Franka Research 3 (formerly the Panda) is a research platform, not a production cobot. Franka Emika filed insolvency in September 2023; Agile Robots acquired the IP and brand in 2024 for over EUR 30M and refocused the product around academic / R&D applications. The Franka Control Interface is a research SDK — it exposes low-level torque control and joint dynamics that production cobot controllers deliberately hide. The USD figures still circulating for this arm all pre-date the acquisition, which is why we no longer show one: post-acquisition pricing is unstable and the route to procurement is direct from Agile Robots rather than distributor channels. For university automation programs, robotics research labs, and pre-commercial product development, this is a useful platform. For anyone evaluating it as a production-cell purchase: this is the wrong product. UR3e at slightly higher cost ships with production-grade software, validated EOAT, and an integrator network. Franka Research 3 has none of those.

Vendor-specific Bill of Materials.

These line items are what Franka Robotics cells specifically need, beyond the bare arm. On our model the arm is 25-50 percent of the installed cell, a 2x to 4x multiplier, and these items are most of the difference. Costs below are our own estimates unless they name a published source.

Target buyer profile.

University robotics programs, R&D labs, pre-commercial product development. NOT for production cells.

Not published. This row used to show $12,000-$20,000 cited to a news article about the Agile Robots acquisition, which carries no price. Franka filed insolvency in 2023 and post-acquisition pricing is unstable. RESEARCH PLATFORM, not a production cobot peer - do not benchmark against the arms above.