// Inside the Build
An open engineering log from the UNIT 01 program. Real parts, real software, real decisions — posted as they're made, not after the launch video.
The first night-patrol sequence: UNIT 01 walking a facility perimeter in the rain, with the live Fantom Command patrol screen in the operator's hand — the actual software, not a mock-up. Patrol is our beachhead mission: repetitive, measurable, chronically understaffed, and exactly what a machine that never gets bored is for.
The head design is frozen and turned into an orthographic reference set: front, profile, rear, three-quarter, at consistent scale. This is the geometry that feeds the CAD and the printed shell. One smooth wraparound visor, a blue perimeter light ring, and the emblem dead-center on a face that is a display, not a window.
Inside the glossy domes sits a watertight, parametric skull-core: a curved cradle that holds the AMOLED face panel a uniform three millimeters behind the glass, vent slots for heat, seats for the front and rear domes, temple windows for the stereo cameras, and a neck collar that bolts to the pan-tilt mount. It splits into two halves and comes off the printer as a real part.
The face software is live on the real 5.5″ AMOLED: the emblem rendered as a hot near-white core with an electric-blue bloom on true black, breathing — a slow exhale and inhale of brightness, with the occasional blink. On AMOLED, black means off: behind the smoked visor there is nothing there until the ghost breathes in.
Two decisions that define the body. First, the abdomen carries two swappable battery packs — the visible form of a station-side hot-swap that keeps the shift running around the clock. Second, the material standard: charcoal twill weave over the head, torso, and upper limbs, with exposed hard structure at the forearms, hands, shins, and feet. Consumer-robotics calm on top, machine underneath.
Four stereo camera pairs ring the skull — front behind the smoked visor, rear behind a second glass pod, one at each temple — wrapped by a single COB light rim. Full 360° surround depth, no blind spots, no turning to look. It works next to people because it always sees them.
