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libfranka

  • Software
  • Robot arms and industry
  • Driver or SDK

C++ library for low-level control of Franka Robotics research robots, with Python bindings (pylibfranka) for the same robots. It exposes motion control and real-time communication with the robot.

Made by Franka Robotics.

Source on GitHub: github.com/frankarobotics/libfranka (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit e88d08f (opens in a new tab).

Licenses

Code
Apache-2.0 (opens in a new tab)

Read by Robotheca from LICENSE (opens in a new tab) (Apache-2.0) at commit e88d08f (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.

Commercial use
Yes

What it does

  • Provides low-level, precise motion control for Franka research robots.
  • Supports real-time communication with the robot.
  • Ships prebuilt Debian packages for Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, 24.04 and 26.04 LTS, and can also be built from source or in Docker.
  • Includes pylibfranka, Python bindings installable via pip, with example scripts for joint position, robot state printing, joint impedance control and gripper control.
  • Offers CMake build options for tests, examples and Python bindings.

Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit e88d08f.

Getting started

Difficulty
Advanced
Hardware it needs, as the project states it
A Franka Robotics robot with the FCI feature installed, reachable over a network connection (1000BASE-T Ethernet recommended), running Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, 24.04 or 26.04 LTS; a Linux PREEMPT_RT patched kernel is recommended for real-time control. Building from source requires GCC 9 or later and CMa

Maintenance

Status
Active: a commit in the last 90 days
Newest commit
2 Sept 2026 on main
Latest release
libfranka 0.21.3 (30 Jul 2026)

Checked on GitHub on 16 Oct 2026.

Links

Robots on Robotheca that use it

No robot on Robotheca is linked to it yet. Links come from a robot's robot.yaml, from its dependency files read as text, or from Robotheca's editors.

Robotheca lists software as a reference: nothing is hosted or run here, and every fact links to where it was read.