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Agile Robots’ Yu 5 collaborative robotic arm (left) and Franka Emika’s Manufacturing 3 cobot. | Credit score: Agile Robots, Franka Emika
Agile Robots AG, a German robotics developer, is buying Franka Emika GmbH simply two months after it filed for preliminary insolvency. Agile stated it’s going to take over Franka Emika’s operations, conserving its roughly 100-person employees with plans to develop the corporate.
Again in September 2023, Munich–based mostly Franka Emika, the developer of the Panda collaborative robotic (cobot) arm, cited “irreconcilable shareholder variations” as the rationale behind its submitting for insolvency. For the reason that submitting, Matthias Hofmann, Franka Emika’s preliminary insolvency administrator, continued talks with earlier buyers and labored to open discussions with new ones.
Franka Emika’s collectors’ committee beforehand accepted the transaction. Franka Emika and Agile Robots didn’t disclose the monetary particulars of the transaction. Nonetheless, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported the acquisition was price greater than 30 million euros ($32 million).
Agile Robots can also be based mostly in Munich and was based on the German Aerospace Middle (DLR) in 2018. The corporate provides an industrial robotic arm, a cobot arm, software program, an anthropomorphic robotic hand and extra.
“The merger of Agile Robots and Franka Emika is a robust sign for Germany as a robotics and AI location,” Zhaopeng Chen, CEO and founding father of Agile Robots, stated. “This transaction is an industrial answer that gives a singular alternative to create a Bavarian know-how firm with a really international perspective. We sit up for shaping the way forward for Trade 5.0 along with the group at Franka Emika.”
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Overlap between Agile and Franka
The 2 firms each supply robots for analysis and schooling and industrial use. Agile Robots could possibly be occupied with Franka Emika due to this overlap. Whereas it could possibly be unrelated to the corporate submitting for insolvency, methods integrator Voith Robotics stopped promoting Franka Emika’s Panda arm in favor of cobots from Common Robots in early 2020.
On the time, a supply informed The Robotic Report the connection between Franka Emika and Voith was a mismatch from the start on account of Franka Emika’s concentrate on schooling. Voith is a purely industrial integrator, so it didn’t combine effectively with Franka, in line with the supply.
Agile stated its schooling platform, Aini, helps college students aged 8 to fifteen program and function robots. It consists of an academic framework and an built-in platform. Agile stated the platform teaches foundational ideas of logic, laptop science, arithmetic, and physics by educating youngsters to manage a robotic.
Franka Emika makes its Analysis 3 cobot for the robotics analysis neighborhood. The corporate stated it provides a mixture of bodily interplay options and ease of use to greatest match researchers’ wants.
Whereas Franka gears its arm in the direction of the robotics analysis neighborhood, the businesses might combine Franka’s analysis cobots with Agile’s Aini platform sooner or later. Agile can also be occupied with utilizing Franka to develop its international attain.
“This transaction permits us to speed up the implementation of our worldwide development technique,” Rory Sexton, vp of operations at Agile Robots, stated. “The mix of robust AI and software program experience with main robotics know-how strengthens our innovation energy and our skill to develop demand-driven and market-ready merchandise. That is good for our location, for the groups, and for the shoppers of each firms.”
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