NASA Gives Pittsburgh Robotics Firm a Contract to Build Tinier, Tougher Robot Joints

Key points

• HEBI Robotics, a Pittsburgh company, won a NASA SBIR Phase I contract (a small-business research grant) to develop miniaturised robot actuators, the motorised joints that make robot limbs move.
• A separate Phase II contract, worth $850,000 over two years, was awarded earlier in 2025 to build and test similar hardware for low Earth orbit and geosynchronous orbit missions.
• NASA wants the hardware for CubeSats and other very small spacecraft where standard robotic parts are too big or too expensive.
• HEBI is a Carnegie Mellon University spinout whose modular, "Lego-like" robot parts are already used by research labs and industrial teams worldwide.
• Phase I runs through December 2026; a Phase II follow-on contract, with more funding, would be the next step if results are strong.

When a robot arm picks something up, it is a small motor called an actuator doing the work. Every joint in the arm has one. The problem for spacecraft designers is that the actuators good enough for serious jobs have always been either enormous, eye-wateringly expensive, or both.

HEBI Robotics thinks it has a path to fix that.

What did NASA actually fund?

NASA awarded HEBI a Phase I SBIR grant, meaning a first-stage small-business research contract. The money lets HEBI explore how to pack a high-torque motor and a gearbox into a package tiny enough to fit inside a CubeSat, a standardised small satellite roughly the size of a shoebox.

The Phase I work runs through December 2026. If the research delivers, HEBI could apply for a Phase II award with a larger budget to build and test working prototypes.

This is actually HEBI's second active NASA contract. Earlier this year, as first reported by The Robot Report, the company also received a two-year, $850,000 Phase II SBIR contract to develop control electronics for flight-ready actuation hardware aimed at low Earth orbit and geosynchronous Earth orbit missions.

Why does the size of a motor joint matter?

Right now, robot hardware for space sits at two awkward extremes. Cheap hobby servos, the kind used in consumer drones and model aircraft, cannot handle the demands of a real mission. Custom space-grade systems can, but they cost a fortune and take years to certify.

HEBI's director of hardware, Andrew Willig, put it plainly: the company wants to "bring the price point down on rugged hardware without compromising the reliability that a critical industry such as aerospace relies on."

The company's existing product line uses a modular design: standardised building blocks that snap together the way Lego bricks do, letting engineers assemble a custom robot arm without starting from scratch every time. The new miniaturised actuator would extend that same idea to spacecraft.

Does any of this affect people on the ground?

Willig was direct about the spill-over potential. "Space is difficult, but the lessons apply here on earth as well," he said. Actuators tough enough for orbit are also useful in factories, mines, disaster sites and anywhere else a robot needs to work in a rough or dangerous environment.

For workers in those industries, cheaper and more reliable robotic components generally means faster deployment of automation in places that are currently too hazardous or too costly to automate.

What happens next?

HEBI will spend the next year and a half exploring design options under the Phase I contract. Success there would open the door to a funded Phase II build-and-test phase. The company also won a 2025 RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award for its "inchworm" robot family, which suggests its existing hardware is already earning outside recognition.

The honest takeaway: HEBI is still in the research stage here. A contract to study something is not the same as a contract to build a product. Watch for Phase II news in late 2026 as the real signal that this hardware is heading somewhere concrete.