The DROID Robot Platform - Franka FR3 Edition

This repository contains the code for setting up your DROID robot platform for Franka Research 3 (FR3) robots and using it to collect teleoperated demonstration data.

Originally designed for Panda robots using polymetis, this fork has been adapted for FR3 with support for the modern Franky SDK.

Quick Links

[Original DROID Homepage]   [DROID Dataset]   [Paper]

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Prerequisites

Hardware

• Franka Research 3 robot with control desk connected
• Zed camera for visual data collection
• Robotiq 2F gripper (optional, for grasping operations)
• NUC PC (for robot control) - Ubuntu 22.04
• Laptop (for teleoperation) - Ubuntu 22.04

Software

• Python 3.10+
• Franky SDK (pip install franky-control)
• pyrobotiqgripper (for Robotiq gripper control)
• dm-control, mujoco, pybullet (for IK solver)

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Getting Started

1. Environment Variables

Configure your environment in droid/misc/parameters.py or via system environment variables:

export ROBOT_IP=172.16.0.3           # FR3 robot IP address
export NUC_IP=172.16.0.2             # NUC control PC IP
export LAPTOP_IP=172.16.0.1          # Laptop IP
export ROBOT_TYPE=fr3                # Robot type

2. Start Robot Server

On the NUC control PC:

conda activate base
cd scripts/server
./launch_server.sh

3. Start Teleoperation Client

On the laptop:

# Use the DROID client to connect to the robot server

For more details on the teleoperation interface, see the original DROID documentation.

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Key Differences from Original DROID

Component	Original (Panda)	FR3 Version
Robot Control	polymetis (USB/PCIe)	Franky (TCP/IP)
OS	Ubuntu 18.04	Ubuntu 22.04
Python	3.7	3.10
Gripper	Franka gripper	Robotiq 2F (pyrobotiqgripper)

New Components

• FrankyRobot (droid/franka/franky_robot.py) - Main robot control class using Franky SDK
• IK enhancements - cartesian_position_to_joint_position for direct IK solving
• Camera improvements - Skip unavailable cameras during initialization

Configuration Example

For Robotiq gripper control, set the serial port:

export GRIPPER_COM_PORT=/dev/ttyUSB0

See droid/misc/parameters.py for all configurable parameters.

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Docker Setup

Dockerfiles are provided for both NUC and laptop environments. See:

• .docker/nuc/Dockerfile.nuc - NUC control PC image
• .docker/laptop/Dockerfile.laptop - Laptop teleop image

Use the provided setup scripts:

• scripts/setup/nuc_setup.sh - Setup NUC environment
• scripts/setup/laptop_setup.sh - Setup laptop environment

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Troubleshooting

Robot connection issues:

• Verify ROBOT_IP is correct and the robot is accessible
• Check firewall settings allow TCP connections on port 4242

Gripper not responding:

• Confirm GRIPPER_COM_PORT is correct
• Verify Robotiq gripper is powered on and connected

Camera not detected:

• Check Zed SDK installation on laptop
• Run zed_camera.py directly to see which cameras are available

For more details, see docs/setup_records/ for our setup experience.