S-Ventures Fundraise UK: HydraDrones; Defence Tech with £100m Revenue Plan by 2030
S Ventures announced a new equity raise to fund Hydra Drones, a UK‑based developer of ultra‑heavy lift hybrid UAVs. The company, founded in 2019, is preparing to launch its third‑generation Hydra 400, capable of carrying 400 kg in a compact, transportable frame, and aims to commercialise the platform by early 2025. The CFO highlighted several differentiators: a hybrid propulsion system that can switch between pure electric for efficiency and up to six jet engines for maximum payload, a modular design that fits in a Land Rover or a standard container, and a focus on both military and civilian applications. A £1 million bridge round, backed by MBDA—a BAE Systems‑owned missile group—covers final testing, SORA regulatory clearance, and early market demos, with a larger raise planned once risk is reduced. Gavin Nele emphasized the strategic value of MBDA’s equity stake and channel partnership, noting that the defence prime can open sales pipelines and provide engineering talent. He also announced that Hydra Drones secured SORA permissions, removing a major regulatory hurdle and enabling broader flight testing. If successful, Hydra’s platform could replace costly helicopters for logistics and surveillance, unlocking a multi‑billion‑pound addressable market. The company targets £75‑£100 million in revenue by 2030, positioning the UK as a leader in heavy‑lift drone technology and offering investors exposure to a fast‑growing dual‑use sector.
Enhancing Planning and Decision Making for Robotic Autonomy - John Lathrop
John Lathrop’s Everheart lecture tackled the pressing challenge of planning and decision‑making for robotic autonomy when data are scarce. He illustrated the problem with three real‑world projects—a custom tilt‑jet VTOL aircraft, an autonomous racing car, and a simulated spacecraft‑capture mission—each...
Soft Robotics Inspired by Nature | Building Artificial Muscles that Move and Sense with Ryan Truby
The Nanocape episode spotlights Ryan Truby’s work at Northwestern University, where he re‑imagines robots from the inside out by replacing stiff, precision‑driven mechanisms with bio‑inspired soft materials and artificial muscles. Truby argues that the next wave of robotics must...
Can Robots Improve Customer Service? | Ivey Classroom Demo
The Ivey classroom demo explored whether robots can enhance customer service, featuring speaker Johnny, a veteran of robotics in manufacturing and EV sectors, who highlighted the emerging role of autonomous machines in hospitality. Participants learned that robots function as change agents,...
OrthAlign CEO Eric Timko on the Opportunity for Fast Followers In...
The Device Talks podcast episode provides a broad snapshot of the current med‑tech landscape, from regulatory shifts and financing to cybersecurity and market growth. Host Tom Le and guests discuss recent events such as the MedTech Innovator Radar Forum, FDA...
Our Top 5 Robots of @NationalRoboticsWeek 🤖 #shorts
National Robotics Week showcased five standout cobots, each excelling in distinct environments—from warehouses to operating rooms. The video ranks Locus bots, Animal, Spot, Abby, and Hugo, illustrating how autonomous machines are reshaping daily workflows. Locus bots lifted heavy pallets, cutting injury...
Stanford Robotics Seminar ENGR319 | Winter 2026 | Gen Control, Action Chunking, Moravec’s Paradox
The Stanford Robotics Seminar examined why learning from demonstration remains harder for physical robots than for symbolic AI, coining an "algorithmic Moravec's paradox" that highlights fundamental instability in continuous control. The speaker traced the recent surge in narrow manipulation capabilities...
ArticuTool: A Modular Active End-Effector for Robot Assisted Feeding
The video introduces ArticuTool, a modular active end‑effector designed for the Assistive Dextrous Arm (ADA) project, which aims to let robots autonomously deliver a plate‑full of food to users. By swapping interchangeable tools, the system can handle a variety of...
'We Can Provide More Durable Cooperation with Gulf Countries', Ukraine Defence Industry Chief Says
In a Tet‑a‑Tet interview, Ihor Fyodorov, CEO of the Ukraine Council of Defense Industry, outlined how the war in Ukraine is spurring defense cooperation with Gulf states, focusing on low‑cost interceptor drones as an alternative to expensive Patriot systems. Fyodorov said...
From DARPA to Robotaxis to Warehouses — The Full Arc of Autonomy
The MIT Mobility Forum featured Karl Iagnemma, a rare figure who has traversed the entire autonomy spectrum—from MIT research labs and DARPA challenges to founding Nutonomy, steering the Aptiv‑Hyundai joint venture Motional, and now leading Vecna Robotics. Iagnemma recounted the...
A Dexterous Detachable Crawling Robotic Hand
Researchers have unveiled a detachable, reversible robotic hand that can grasp objects from either side of its fingers. The design distributes finger roles to meet both manipulation and crawling constraints, allowing the hand to function as a locomotion module and...
Digital Surgery, How George Murgatroyd GM & VP of Medtronic Sees AI Transforming the OR!
The podcast features George Murgatroyd, Medtronic’s VP of Digital Technologies, discussing how artificial intelligence is poised to transform the operating room. He argues that current practices—surgeons still relying on USB sticks and DVDs for case review—are obsolete, and that high‑compute...
The War in Iran Is Quickly Becoming Defined by the Use of Drones
The Daily Scoop episode highlighted two distinct but technology‑driven developments shaping U.S. security policy: ICE’s record‑breaking arrest numbers powered by artificial‑intelligence tools, and the rapid integration of low‑cost attack drones—known as Lucas platforms—into the ongoing conflict with Iran. ICE reported 167,651...
5 Robots Doing The Spring Cleaning So You Don’t Have To 🤖🌸
The video spotlights five autonomous cleaning robots that tackle household chores—from floors to air—promising hands‑free spring cleaning. It details how robot vacuums and mops rely on lidar or camera vision to identify floor types and modulate suction and water flow, while...
New Jersey Drones | Conspiracies & Coverups | Discovery
On November 25, the Federal Aviation Administration abruptly closed the airspace above the Pikatini Arsenal and extended the restriction to a nearby golf club owned by President‑elect Donald Trump, without providing any public rationale. The move sparked immediate speculation, as the...
Reg Austin Memorial Lecture 2026: Perspectives on UAS From the University of Bristol
The Reg Austin Memorial Lecture 2026, hosted by the Royal Aeronautical Society, honored the late Reg Austin, a pioneer of unmanned air systems whose career spanned Bristol Aircraft, Westland, and academia, and set the stage for a showcase of current...
Learn Drone Programming with Python – Tutorial
The video introduces a Python‑based drone programming course built around the Pyimverse simulator, allowing learners to write and test AI‑driven flight code without purchasing expensive hardware. It frames 2026’s drone light shows as a glimpse of broader industry adoption, from...
PLC Latching vs Sealing Explained Simply
The video walks through two fundamental PLC techniques—seal‑in (or sealing) and output latching—used to keep an output energized after its initiating condition disappears. A seal‑in circuit combines a permissive (the start button) with an interlock (the stop button). When the start...
At Least 10,000 Students to Be Trained in Physical AI over Next 5 Years
Singapore is launching an ambitious talent‑building effort to equip at least 10,000 students with physical AI skills over the next five years, leveraging the National Robotics Program. The initiative spans primary schools to universities, offering hackathons, outreach, and hands‑on robot projects....
Gazebo Community: Gazebo Sim Plugins Made Easy (March, 2026)
The March 2026 Gazebo Community meeting opened with a rundown of upcoming announcements and an invited talk on simplifying Gazebo Sim plugins. Host Alisa highlighted schedule changes while Kitik Verma from Flatterbot prepared to share practical plugin guidance. Key updates included...
3.5-tonne Chinese Drone Completes Maiden Flight
China’s Changying‑8, the world’s largest cargo drone at 3.5 tonnes, completed its maiden flight on March 31, 2026. The unmanned aircraft can lift a payload equal to its own weight, marking a breakthrough in heavy‑lift UAV capability. The test flight demonstrated stable take‑off,...
5 Robots Transforming How We Work
Video highlights five cutting‑edge robots reshaping manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, research and energy sectors. At BMW’s South Carolina plant, a collaborative robot has logged 10‑hour days for six months, contributing to over 30,000 vehicles. Hospitals employ UV‑light sterilization units that eradicate...
China to Spend $400 Billion on Robotics in 2026, the U.S.’s CHIPS Act Spent $50 Billion over Years
China plans to allocate roughly $400 billion to its robotics sector in 2026, dwarfing the U.S. CHIPS Act’s cumulative $50 billion investment. In 2024 Chinese factories installed about 300,000 new industrial robots, compared with just 30,000 in American plants. The country now...
Could Ukraine Be Benefitting From the Iran War? | DW News
The DW News segment examines how the conflict in Iran over Iranian‑made Shahed drones is creating a strategic opening for Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been touring Gulf nations, signing defense pacts with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates,...
Automate Your Lawn With Mammotion Luba 2 Mini in Home Assistant
The video reviews Mammotion’s LUBA mini 2 AWD robotic mower, highlighting its readiness for real‑world lawns with slopes, edges and obstacles, and its deep integration with Home Assistant for DIY automation. The presenter unboxes the unit, walks through the charging base, and...
Ukrainian Soldiers Share Their Frontline Experiences in Britain | Focus on Europe
The video highlights a covert training partnership in which seasoned Ukrainian drone operators are embedded with British forces to teach cutting‑edge unmanned‑aircraft tactics. The exchange, conducted at undisclosed locations, pairs Ukraine’s battlefield experience with the British Army’s institutional resources,...
Humanoids Are the Next Frontier in AI and Robotics
Stanford professor Karen Liu argues that humanoid robots constitute the next frontier in artificial intelligence and robotics, offering a physical embodiment designed for human environments. At the university’s Movement Lab, researchers fuse computer graphics, robotics, and biomechanics to uncover principles of...
How Iran’s Shahed Drones Are Wreaking Havoc in the Middle East | WSJ News
The Wall Street Journal video examines how Iran’s low‑cost Shahed drones are disrupting air defenses across the Middle East. Despite a reported 90% drop in overall drone attacks, the few Shaheds that launch manage to evade detection and strike critical...
Robotic Swarms
The Mechanical Engineering Research Exhibition (MERE) 2026 featured 58 research posters, highlighting the department’s breadth of work. Among the showcases, Pascal Spino presented a functional robotic swarm prototype that demonstrated coordinated autonomous behavior. Attendees used the event to exchange feedback,...
These Drones Are Flying Into Storms to Fix a Dangerous Problem | WSJ Tech Behind
The Wall Street Journal piece spotlights a new generation of unmanned aerial vehicles deployed by the National Severe Storms Laboratory to gather atmospheric measurements inside severe storms. Traditional observations rely on surface stations, satellites, and weather balloons, but large gaps...
Sidh Sikka | Scalable Orbiital Construction with Robotic Swarms @ Vision Weekend Puerto Rico 2026
Sidh Sikka opened his Vision Weekend Puerto Rico 2026 talk by declaring that today’s launch architecture—single‑piece rockets and occasional astronaut‑built modules—cannot support the mass‑intensive, repeatable construction needed for a thriving orbital economy. He framed the “tyranny of the rocket equation”...
Autonomous Ukraine: One Woman's Path From a U.S. College to the Battlefield | Why It Matters
Catarina Buchatskiy left a U.S. college weeks after Russia’s invasion to join Ukraine’s frontline, embodying the diaspora’s rapid mobilization. She co‑founded the Snake Island Institute, which translates battlefield intelligence into policy advice for Western allies. Ukraine’s drone sector has exploded...
Haptic Rendering - Computerphile
The video introduces computer haptics, distinguishing cutaneous vibrations from kinesthetic force feedback, and explains how haptic rendering creates the sensation of touching virtual objects. It focuses on grounded haptic interfaces that read position and orientation, compute forces, and return them...
Venezuela: The Robot Dogs Policing the Streets of Caracas • FRANCE 24 English
France 24 reports that Caracas has introduced robot police dogs to patrol streets and public squares, marking the first large‑scale deployment of autonomous canine units in Venezuela. Authorities say the four‑legged machines are equipped with cameras, speakers and AI‑driven threat detection,...
What Is Special About Northrop Grumman RQ-180 ?
The video examines the unexpected emergency landing of a large flying‑wing unmanned aircraft at Greece’s Larissa Air Base on March 18, widely identified as the classified Northrop Grumman RQ‑180. This incident marks one of the few public sightings of the...
DJI Avata 360 Drone Review: Immersive Video Hits New Highs
DJI's Avata 360 drone, the company's first 360‑camera FPV platform, is positioned as a direct response to Insta360’s anti‑gravity A1. Combining the Avata’s agile frame with a dual‑lens 8K 360 camera, the reviewer tested it indoors, outdoors, and even around...
Ulys Sorok | On Engineering Independence
Ulys Sorok, founder and CEO of the AI‑robotics firm Graham, used the Foresight Space Group forum to introduce “closure,” a systems‑level metric that gauges how much a technology can maintain and replicate itself without external support. He framed the discussion...
AITHON Robotics – How Robotic Drones Are Revolutionizing Infrastructure Maintenance
Aithon Robotics unveiled a hybrid aerial robot designed to transform how critical infrastructure is inspected and repaired. The company argues that two‑thirds of infrastructure budgets go toward upkeep, much of it in hazardous, hard‑to‑reach locations such as under bridges, inside...
AI Meets Biochemistry: Redefining the Lab with Robotic Experiments
The video outlines a Stanford‑led experiment where a reasoning‑type AI model was paired with a fully automated robotic laboratory to tackle a classic biochemistry challenge—self‑free protein synthesis, a process that extracts cellular contents and adds DNA to produce target proteins. The...
First Look at the NEW DJI 360° Drone 👀
The video offers a first look at DJI’s new 360° drone, showcasing raw footage captured by pilot Mo in winter conditions. The demonstration highlights the drone’s ability to record full‑sphere video, allowing creators to re‑frame shots after landing rather than...
This Shapeshifting Polymer Was Inspired by Octopus Skin
The video introduces a thin polymer film that mimics octopus skin, dynamically altering both colour and surface texture before reverting to its original state. Inspired by cephalopod camouflage, the material leverages fluid‑induced swelling to achieve reversible visual changes. The researchers use...
Humanoid Teleoperation Explained | How It Works & Why It’s Essential for Robot Training
The video explains teleoperation—real‑time control of humanoid robots by mirroring a human operator’s movements. Using a VR headset, hand controllers and ankle trackers, the operator’s pose is captured and sent to a robot such as the Unitri G1, which reproduces...
Here’s What It Takes to Get a Robot Ready for the World
X‑Humanoid, a Beijing‑based robotics firm, is subjecting its humanoid prototypes to rigorous eight‑hour endurance trials that combine walking, running and dancing. The tests evaluate coordination, agility and motor‑skill reliability under sustained operation. Engineers aim to identify hardware fatigue points and...
US Robotics Company Steps up Deployment in the Gulf as Companies Review Damage
The interview highlights Gecko, a U.S. robotics firm, accelerating its deployment of AI‑powered robots across the Gulf as the region’s energy infrastructure endures war‑time strikes. The conflict has driven a sharp rise in demand for Gecko’s solutions, with executives citing AI...
The Automation Tech that Keeps Your Robot Vacuum Inside... Most of the Time.
The video explains the automation stack that keeps robot vacuums confined to indoor spaces and why they sometimes wander outside. Modern units combine depth sensors, optical flow, edge detection, and AI‑driven SLAM to map rooms. Some emit LAR pulses (a form...
The Ukrainian Drones The US Wants For Iran
The video examines how the United States is eyeing low‑cost Ukrainian combat drones—specifically the Skyfall P1 Sun and General Cher’s Bullet—to bolster its counter‑UAV capabilities against Iran. These platforms, priced at roughly $1,000 and $2,100 respectively, contrast starkly with the...
PLC Modules Explained in Simple Terms
The video provides a straightforward walkthrough of the hardware architecture that underpins most programmable logic controllers (PLCs). It begins with the rack – the chassis that houses every module in designated slots – and explains that the first slot is...
Demand for Humanoid Robots Off the Charts: Humanoid CTO Cannon
In a recent interview, Humanoid Robotics CTO Cannon outlined the surge in demand for humanoid robots, positioning 2024 as the year they transition from laboratory prototypes to commercial deployments across industrial settings. Cannon said the technology now supports multiple tasks within...
Sodexo Launched an Ottonomy Delivery Robot to Serve Remote Workers
Sodexo has rolled out its first autonomous delivery robot, dubbed Autobot, in the remote Pilbara villages of Western Australia. The launch follows the company’s autonomous store pilot introduced last year and marks the first such robot deployment in the country. The...
Maersk’s S$200 Million, Fully Automated Warehouse Opens in Singapore
Maersk has inaugurated a S$200 million fully automated warehouse in Singapore, marking the company’s largest single‑site investment in the region. The 30,000‑square‑metre facility combines robotics, AI‑driven inventory management and real‑time data integration to process thousands of containers daily, reinforcing Singapore’s status...