PickNik Expands MoveIt Pro Support for Franka’s FR3 to Accelerate AI Manipulation Research

PickNik Robotics has announced expanded support for the Franka Research 3 (FR3) robot arm in its MoveIt Pro software platform, enabling faster development and deployment of AI-driven manipulation systems. The update provides researchers with high-fidelity digital twin environments, streamlined data collection workflows, and tools to move trained models directly from simulation to real hardware.

“AI robotics needs safe, reliable ways to gather data and validate algorithms,” said Dave Coleman, PhD, Founder and Chief Product Officer at PickNik Robotics. “MoveIt Pro with FR3 lets teams focus on advancing capabilities rather than wrestling with systems integration.”

Franka’s FR3 arm is widely used in research labs for its precision and force sensitivity. The ongoing collaboration reflects a shared goal: making sophisticated manipulation research more accessible, reproducible, and scalable.

The new integration includes complete robot models for single- and dual-arm setups, tutorials for training diffusion-based policies, simulation-to-hardware guides, and optimized planning tools introduced in MoveIt Pro 7.0. These updates target a persistent challenge in AI robotics—the gap between algorithm development and reliable deployment—helping teams transition from simulated experiments to real-world execution with reduced friction and cost.