ByteBrief
We're a portrait publication through and through. Turn your phone back and your briefing picks up right where you left it.
(We tried widescreen once. It wasn't us.)
6 stories in the last 7 days
The latest Robotics news, distilled by AI into sharp ~100-word summaries covering robots, automation, drones and robotics research. ByteBrief scans dozens of tech sources and surfaces only what matters, updated hourly. Tap any story for the full brief, or open the original source.
Turin-based ORiS raised €5 million to develop laser power beaming for satellites. Earlybird and Pitchdrive led the €4.5 million pre-seed round, with a €0.5 million grant from the Piedmont Region. The company aims to recharge satellites in orbit using lasers instead of solar panels. A flight model is planned by July 2027.
Neros Technologies, founded by former teenage drone racers Soren Monroe-Anderson and Olaf Hichwa, won a US Army contract worth up to $500 million for FPV attack drones. The Pentagon's largest small-drone deal runs until 2031. Neros plans a 250,000 sq ft factory targeting one million drones annually by 2028.
The FCC is preparing to retroactively ban gadgets from suspected DJI front companies, using a new power granted last October. The agency previously proposed a $25,000 fine on eight such companies, including those behind Skyrover drones and Xtra cameras, for sneaking tech past a foreign drone ban.
Humanoid robots from Agibot, UBtech, and Unitree are working in factories, mostly in pilot projects at 20% to 50% effectiveness. No safety standard exists, blocking fast adoption. The U.S. holds roughly 54% of industrial robots, and a National Robotics Commission is being introduced.
Replit published telemetry on its Self-Driving Company model, showing a 5.8x increase in code contributions, nearly tripled output per engineer, and 30% faster code reviews. Agents replaced a seven-figure SaaS contract. Employees reported feeling promoted as AI handled routine tasks.
Nvidia is partnering with Japan's Noetra Corp to build a 140-megawatt AI factory using 27,500 Rubin GPUs and 13,750 Vera CPUs. The facility will power the FRONTia Project, Japan's state-funded physical AI program, training open multimodal foundation models for robotics and industrial automation.