Franka Control Proxy

A C++ server for controlling Franka Emika robots with optional MuJoCo simulation support.

✨ Features

• Real-time control interface for Franka Emika Panda robots
• Hybrid joint impedance control mode
• Gravity compensation control
• Optional MuJoCo simulation for testing without hardware
• Support for Robotiq grippers

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🛠 Building

All build dependencies (compiler, CMake, pinocchio 2.5.2, libfranka 0.9.2, Boost, ...) come from the pixi environment in pixi.toml. ruckig and ZeroLanCom are fetched by CMakeLists.txt.

pixi run build    # -> build/proxy

libfranka must match the robot's system version; change libfranka in pixi.toml if your robot needs another one.

The MuJoCo simulation build (-DNO_ROBOT_TESTING=ON) additionally needs MuJoCo 3.4.0 and GLFW, which are not part of the pixi environment.

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🚀 Deploying to the real-time machine

The real-time machine (mobile-0-rt) has no internet, so the proxy is built elsewhere and only what it needs at runtime is copied over:

pixi run dist     # -> dist/{bin/proxy, lib/*.so, config/, models/franka_emika_panda/panda_arm.urdf}
pixi run deploy   # replaces mobile-0-rt:~/ngres/franka_control_proxy with dist/

bin/proxy finds its libraries in ../lib, so no environment or LD_LIBRARY_PATH is needed on the target.

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🏃 Usage

Run from the folder that contains config/ and models/ (paths in the configs are relative to it):

./bin/proxy ./config/proxy/droid.yaml     # deployed folder
./build/proxy ./config/proxy/droid.yaml   # local build

See the config/ directory for example configuration files.

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📁 Project Structure

FrankaControlProxy/
├── config/              # Configuration files
│   ├── controller/      # Controller parameters
│   ├── gripper/         # Gripper configurations
│   ├── proxy/           # Proxy server settings
│   └── robot/           # Robot configurations
├── include/             # Header files
│   ├── control_mode/    # Control mode interfaces
│   ├── mujoco_sim/      # MuJoCo simulation
│   ├── protocol/        # Communication protocol
│   ├── robots/          # Robot interfaces
│   └── utils/           # Utility functions
├── models/              # MuJoCo robot models
├── scripts/             # Build and utility scripts
├── src/                 # Source files
└── third_party/         # Third-party dependencies

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📄 License

See LICENSE for details.