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Agile Robots AG, a German robotics developer, is buying Franka Emika GmbH simply two months after it filed for preliminary insolvency. Agile stated it’ll take over Franka Emika’s operations, retaining 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 traders and labored to open discussions with new ones.
Franka Emika’s collectors’ committee beforehand accredited the transaction. Franka Emika and Agile Robots didn’t disclose the monetary particulars of the transaction. Nevertheless, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported the acquisition was value greater than 30 million euros ($32 million).
Agile Robots can also be based mostly in Munich and was based on the German Aerospace Heart (DLR) in 2018. The corporate gives 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 powerful 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 novel alternative to create a Bavarian know-how firm with a really world perspective. We sit up for shaping the way forward for Business 5.0 along with the group at Franka Emika.”
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Overlap between Agile and Franka
The 2 corporations each supply robots for analysis and schooling and industrial use. Agile Robots may very well be considering Franka Emika due to this overlap. Whereas it may very well be unrelated to the corporate submitting for insolvency, techniques 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 instructed The Robotic Report the connection between Franka Emika and Voith was a mismatch from the start as a result of Franka Emika’s give attention to schooling. Voith is a purely industrial integrator, so it didn’t combine properly with Franka, in accordance 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, pc science, arithmetic, and physics by instructing youngsters to manage a robotic.
Franka Emika makes its Analysis 3 cobot for the robotics analysis group. The corporate stated it gives a mixture of bodily interplay options and ease of use to finest match researchers’ wants.
Whereas Franka gears its arm in direction of the robotics analysis group, the businesses may combine Franka’s analysis cobots with Agile’s Aini platform sooner or later. Agile can also be considering utilizing Franka to develop its world attain.
“This transaction permits us to speed up the implementation of our worldwide progress technique,” Rory Sexton, vice chairman of operations at Agile Robots, stated. “The mix of sturdy AI and software program experience with main robotics know-how strengthens our innovation energy and our potential to develop demand-driven and market-ready merchandise. That is good for our location, for the groups, and for the shoppers of each corporations.”