Heart Aerospace has successfully flown the X1, now the largest battery-electric hybrid aircraft ever to take to the skies, completing a 27-minute test flight on just five dollars’ worth of electricity.
Top Stories This Week
- The World’s Largest Electric Hybrid Aircraft Has Flown For The First Time
- Gravis Robotics Raises $200M For Autonomous Construction
- CyberSmile Opens Hong Kong Training Centre For Robotic And AI-assisted Dental Implant Surgery
- The Next China Shock Will Come From Open-source AI
- Why OpenAI Is Paying Robotics Engineers Up To $325k
- Humanoid Robots Need A Real-Time, Distributed Nervous System
- NASA’s Moon Base Is Taking Shape With 20+ Lunar Landings Planned
- How Humble Robotics Validates Camera, Lidar And Radar Systems Without Millions Of Road Miles
- Caltech Breakthrough Brings Fiber-optic Performance To Silicon Chips
- The US’ First Digital Nuclear Reactor Is Carrying Out ‘First-Of-A-Kind Experiments’
- Hackaday Europe 2026: Open Source Hardware Goes Underground
Hardware Business News
Gravis Robotics Raises $200M For Autonomous Construction
Gravis Robotics just secured a record $200 million Series A investment from SoftBank to expand its autonomous construction technology, which retrofits existing heavy machinery with AI-driven control systems.
CyberSmile Opens Hong Kong Training Centre For Robotic And AI-assisted Dental Implant Surgery
CyberSmile has launched a new centre in Hong Kong aimed at bridging the educational gap in robotic and AI-assisted dental implant surgery, offering clinicians hands-on experience with dynamic navigation, surgical robots and AI planning tools.
The Next China Shock Will Come From Open-source AI
At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, President Xi outlined China’s push to lead in low-cost, open-source AI, signalling a shift toward exporting not just technology but also technical standards and governance models.
Why OpenAI Is Paying Robotics Engineers Up To $325k
OpenAI is ramping up its robotics division by offering up to $325,000 for engineers who can bridge sensing hardware and advanced AI, indicating a major shift toward physical AI systems.
Hardware Engineering News
Humanoid Robots Need A Real-Time, Distributed Nervous System
As architectures evolve to mirror the cerebrum-cerebellum division found in biology, the integration of advanced microcontrollers and high-speed networking protocols like EtherCAT are becoming critical for achieving responsive, adaptable movement,raising interesting questions about future design and performance.
NASA’s Moon Base Is Taking Shape With 20+ Lunar Landings Planned
NASA is advancing plans for a Moon Base by orchestrating over 20 robotic landings through 2029, with commercial landers from Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, and Voyager Technologies testing critical hardware and technologies under real lunar conditions.
How Humble Robotics Validates Camera, Lidar And Radar Systems Without Millions Of Road Miles
Humble Robotics is advancing freight vehicle autonomy by validating integrated camera, lidar, and radar sensor systems using photorealistic simulation, reducing the need for vast real-world testing miles.
Hardware R&D News
Caltech Breakthrough Brings Fiber-optic Performance To Silicon Chips
Caltech researchers have engineered optical pathways on silicon chips that now rival the ultralow loss performance of fiber optics, especially at visible wavelengths, marking a key step for integrated photonics.
The US’ First Digital Nuclear Reactor Is Carrying Out ‘First-Of-A-Kind Experiments’
Purdue University’s PUR-1 reactor, the first in the U.S. to operate with a fully digital safety and control system, is now enabling groundbreaking experiments in AI-driven reactor management and remote operation.
Open-Source Hardware News
Hackaday Europe 2026: Open Source Hardware Goes Underground
Phil Underwood’s presentation at Hackaday Europe 2026 showcased two decades of open hardware evolution for cave mapping, with each device iteration balancing rugged design and accessibility for hobbyists.
