@loombotic We’re launching the world’s first quick-turn, high-mix, fully automated wire harness production line.
Our goal is to make wire harnesses as fast and easy to order as PCBs or sheet metal.
Customers can already upload a harness design and get an instant quote. Starting today, these parts can now be produced on our automated line.
We’re starting with Mini-Fit Jr., with more connectors coming soon.
🇺🇸 Valinor Enterprises (@valinortech) reported that the U.S. Army procured ten Condor drones for flight testing and evaluation at Arcane Thunder 26.
"Valinor's Condor UAS features a modular, multi-domain launch airframe engineered for rapid deployment and high-volume fielding in contested environments."
More on Condor >> https://t.co/YpoQ6T1W4W
The @USArmy procured ten Valinor Condor drones for flight testing and evaluation at Arcane Thunder 26.
UAS pilots from @USArmyMDCE experienced Condor's capabilities hands-on, including high-altitude balloon deployment and autonomous long-range flight.
just got back from a drone conference.
About 80 percent of speakers said the same two things.
FAA and FCC rules are the number one blocker, except for police users. And there is no viable alternative to China for key materials.
Acrophobics be warned.
Onboard footage captures the moment Condor is released from a high-altitude balloon, transitioning into fixed-wing flight for autonomous mission execution.
.@mcuban says humanoid robots won't last more than 5-10 years.
Instead, we'll "design the house to fit the robot, and design the robot to fit the house."
"You could create a house where the pantry, the refrigerator, and the washing machines were hidden behind the garage, if you even have a garage. That way you could redesign the house so that all the living space was for people."
Great idea, we already doing it, but it's not as simple as it seems. This isn't just a "start making it & they will come" situation, it's more like a "spend a ton of money, do it, don't charge more than 1%-10% profit & try to convince the masses to buy American made for the good of the country."
If we only look at the drone motors & ignore the rest of the industrial BLDC motors which we also really need. It becomes very apparent why nobody else is really doing this man. Basically I need around $25M to make the large scale industrial machinery required to bring just 1/64th of the BLDC manufacturing capacity online that China operates at 24/7. Everything has to be automated, everything has to run 24/7 with minimal maintenance. This honestly a dedicated BLDC 2-4 types max motor facility, if you want different 2-4 types, then it's another $25M & new factory. Maybe it could be less, but nobody is willing to fork out that money to do that.
China sells 1B BLDC motors every year & that number keeps rising as they lower the prices on them. Until the DOW is willing to invest in this, which as of 3/11/2026 they are not willing to do. I'm not sure that we are going to solve this outside of some niche lines & small scale capacity. It burns me to even type this out, but it's the truth man!
Basically every incumbent government lost post-COVID because voters wanted the impossible:
1. Instant return to full employment
2. No inflation
3. WFH
4. culturally everything goes back to 2019
That was *impossible*.
A few months ago I became curious about "instant quote" manufacturing startups, like SendCutSend. A little curiosity became a deep dive because this business model solves most weaknesses with US manufacturing.
America does a lot of manufacturing, but its mostly high volume, boring stuff. Small volume parts that are important for capital equipment and startups developing new technology have been a struggle, hurting US competitiveness.
Another component is that top tier workers in the US earn WAY more than the rest of the world. Any company developing low volume products or doing testing spends massive amounts of money for workers to sit around waiting for parts or other slow processes (hence the popularity of vertical integration).
Low volume manufacturers themselves struggle to provide reasonable costs because they pay a lot for workers to do things like provide quotes, send bills, program machines, or correct defects. And at low volume there aren't many parts to spread these costs over.
Instant quote startups with short lead times kill two birds with one stone. Customers get instant ordering and feedback. Their parts come within a few days, saving massive amounts of money by decreasing dead time. And the only way for producers to deliver this speed is end-to-end digitization that eliminates all the soft costs. Effective part cost declines by an order of magnitude, making US manufacturing competitive with overseas.
It isn't just cute little parts because these services make technology and product cycles go faster through quicker iteration. It becomes way easier to build custom manufacturing equipment or prototype new things.
These companies also make great businesses, too, because they have lower marginal costs than existing producers and see incredible benefits from scaling that allows them to get big.
I wrote a deep dive on the sector on my blog.
https://t.co/Rk5mYJqFwr
We brought in a writer of Toy Story to build a robot that feels alive.
Introducing Ongo, a desk lamp that will light up your life.
Pre-order one of the first 100 units (link below).
The funniest thing in Figure BMW demos (and frankly almost all humanoid demos) is that the absurdly complex humanoid is slowly doing the simplest possible job, pick and place, while unglamorous industrial robots around it rapidly do absurdly high-value manufacturing
DEI for robots