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Franka Emika’s Franka Analysis 3 platform. | Supply: Franka Emika
Franka Emika, the German-based developer of the Panda collaborative robotic arm, has filed for insolvency because of “irreconcilable shareholder variations.”
The preliminary insolvency administrator, Dr. Matthias Hofmann, and his crew are at the moment making ready the pre-financing of insolvency advantages for the greater than 100 staff. “The wages of the workers are secured as much as and together with October 2023 by way of state-sponsored insolvency advantages. Till then, we are going to work collectively to discover a answer for the way forward for the corporate. I’m very assured that we are going to achieve main Franka Emika into future collectively,” says Hofmann.
The corporate issued a LinkedIn submit to present extra particulars concerning the information:
In line with a launch from the corporate, talks with traders in latest months couldn’t be concluded because of variations among the many shareholders of Franka Emika. Hofmann will likely be tasked with taking cost of those ongoing talks and opening discussions with new traders.
Presently, Hofmann and his crew are taking an in-depth have a look at the corporate. Franka Emika’s administration crew and Hofmann have already knowledgeable greater than 100 Franka Emika staff concerning the scenario, and are at the moment within the strategy of informing clients, companions, and different stakeholders. The crew can be working to develop the corporate’s seek for traders.
Whereas these two occasions could possibly be unrelated, maybe the primary signal of bother for Franka Emika occurred in early 2020. Techniques integrator Voith Robotics stopped promoting the Panda arm in favor of cobots from Common Robots. On the time, a supply instructed The Robotic Report the connection between Franka Emika and Voith was a mismatch from the start.
“Franka was geared towards training as a substitute of commercial, and Voith is only industrial, in order that they didn’t combine nicely,” the supply mentioned. “Franka is technically excellent, nevertheless it’s very exhausting to construct and it displays in the fee, to allow them to not compete with UR. And the three Kg payload is simply too small. A 5 Kg payload is the most well-liked, adopted by 10 Kg and three Kg is [a distant] third.”
Each Hofmann and Franka Emika appear optimistic about discussions with future traders. “Our order books are full, and we’re happy to have the ability to serve our clients nicely once more with the assist of our provider and Dr. Hofmann,” Franka Emika Managing Director Dr. Patrick Pfaff mentioned. “Within the meantime, greater than half of our orders now come from business – together with industrial gamers, in addition to innovators like Deepmind and a just lately gained OEM within the US masking a totally newly market section, main analysis establishments and quite a few medium-sized enterprises, addressing labor scarcity and securing their native competitiveness with our answer. With a brand new investor at our facet and with the assist of our enterprise companions, we are able to double our earlier yr’s turnover within the quick time period and obtain a optimistic money move.“
Franka Emika is probably going greatest identified for its Panda cobot arm, which is broadly used for analysis functions. Extra just lately, the corporate launched its Franka Analysis 3, an up to date analysis platform for robotics. The platform features a robotic arm and the Franka Management Interface (FCI) so customers can discover low-level programming and management schemes. It additionally gives production-level robots for industrial robotics automation.
If you happen to’re all for studying extra concerning the intricacies of German insolvency regulation, go right here to seek out extra data. The Robotic Report reached out to Franka Emika for particulars. This story is creating and will likely be up to date as wanted.