Today issue turned into a bit of a YouTube party as I'm traveling and I don't have as much time as I would like to do some proper research for the newsletter. Still, these are some solid engineering projects that I hope you will too find interesting. Enjoy!
Build real supplier relationships [Sponsored]
Most hardware teams are stuck choosing between two bad options: instant-quote platforms that hide suppliers behind a black box, or local shops that hit capacity walls right when you need them most. One trades away relationships for speed. The other offers trust but can't scale.
Jiga gives you both. Direct access to vetted manufacturers with reliable capacity from prototype through production. You speak directly to the people making your parts. And when you come back, they already know your specs and technical needs. Same shop, same knowledge, consistently reliable quality without starting over every time.
I Built an Even Better Robot Dog
Aaed Musa made another video, this time showing a process of prototyping a cheaper version of a robot dog. If you like following engineering process, you will love this video.
Secrets of Walking Robot (NVIDIA Isaac Lab and Isaac Lab Arena)
Skyentific made quite a tutorial on Reinforcement Learning for a bipedal robot using NVIDIA Isaac Lab. The video is quite detailed, so if you are looking to run RL pipelines yourself, you might want to check it out.
A Guide to CubeSat Mission and Bus Design
This reference is an open-source book under Creative Commons licence on CubeSat design. The book covers system engineering, mechanics, electronics, communications, thermodynamics, control theory, and more!
How I learned what a decoupling capacitor is for, the hard way
Oh, the joy of electronics debugging. I can believe the author was frustrated getting into these kinds of issues, but thankfully we learned something from their experience. I highly recommend this read if you enjoy hardware debugging
penPal: Exploring Textural Mark-Making with a Novel Handheld Actuated Drawing Tool
This video shows a very clever continuum robot that can be used for drawing predefined shapes. I find it very interesting what a creative mind can do with just 2 degrees of freedom.
Skydio Raises $110M Series F Expands U.S. Manufacturing - DRONELIFE
Skydio has raised $110 million in Series F financing, led by existing investors, bringing the company’s valuation to $4.4 billion.
Sereact Raises $110M Series B
Sereact has raised a $110 million Series B round led by Headline, with participation from Bullhound Capital, Daphni, and Felix Capital. Existing investors Air Street Capital, Creandum (lead of Sereact’s 2025 Series A), and Point Nine all returned for this round.
Our Sponsors
- Anyscale gives you a platform to run and scale all your ML and AI workloads, from data processing to training and inference.
- Foxglove is a purpose-built, modular platform for robotics teams to collect, organize, and learn from vast quantities of multimodal data, creating the data flywheel to safely scale from development to distributed fleets
- HelloRobo distils robotics tech into simple, usable interfaces
- Jiga connects hardware teams directly with vetted manufacturers for reliable capacity from prototype to production, combining the speed of digital manufacturing with the trust of a long-term supplier relationship
Events
- Actuate Global — Paris: Community Meetup: May 04, 2026. Paris, France
- Actuate Global — Zurich: Field Session: May 06, 2026. Zurich, Switzerland
- NextGen Robotics LIVE: May 06, 2026. Odense, Denmark
- Actuate Global — Munich: Community Meetup: May 07, 2026. Munich, Germany
- Cracow Robotics & AI Meetup: May 18, 2026. Krakow, Poland
- Open Hardware Summit: May 22 - May 23, 2026. Berlin, Germany
- Robotics Summit & Expo 2026: May 27 - May 28, 2026. Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Actuate Global — Boston: Community Meetup: May 27, 2026. Boston, United States of America
- ICRA 2026: Jun 01 - Jun 05, 2026. Vienna, Austria
- 2026 Energy Drone & Robotics Summit: Jun 22 - Jun 24, 2026. Houston, Texas, United States of America
For more robotic events, check out our event page.
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