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Franka Panda / FR3 Integration

This page summarizes the integration guide for mounting a Linkerbot L20 Lite, L20, or L30 hand on Franka Research 3 (FR3) and Franka Emika Panda arms.

For the complete, detailed instructions, please refer to the Full Franka Integration Guide.

5-Step Integration Checklist

  1. Mechanical Mounting: Use an adapter plate (Franka-side ISO 9409-1-50-4-M6 to Linkerbot-side [VENDOR_SPEC_REQUIRED]). Ensure the hand is mounted as close to the wrist as possible to preserve Cartesian compliance behavior.
  2. Electrical Setup: Provide a dedicated, fused external DC power supply ([VENDOR_SPEC_REQUIRED]). Do NOT use the Franka controller to power the hand.
  3. Communication Setup: Wire the CAN/CAN FD or RS-485 lines to your host PC. Route cables with enough slack to avoid biasing force-torque behavior during impedance control experiments.
  4. Robot Configuration: Set the exact end-effector mass, inertial estimate, and center of gravity in the Franka control stack before enabling motion.
  5. Software & Testing: Install the ROS 2 packages, attach the hand to the fr3_hand_tcp (or appropriate Panda TCP link) in the URDF, and run mock-mode tests before engaging hardware.

ROS 2 Launch Snippet

Add the following to your ROS 2 launch file to start the hand node alongside the franka_ros2 control stack:

from launch import LaunchDescription
from launch_ros.actions import Node

def generate_launch_description() -> LaunchDescription:
    return LaunchDescription(
        [
            Node(
                package="dexterous_hand_ros2",
                executable="hand_node",
                name="dexterous_hand",
                output="screen",
            )
        ]
    )