> boot sequence complete · 06:12:04

# Machines that learn the world by touching it

Quanta is an independent robotics laboratory in New Arden. We design our own platforms, run them until they fail, log the failure, and ship the lesson to the whole fleet by morning.

FLEET
  31 units / 4 platforms
MODE
  continuous field trials
FUNDING
  independent, partner-backed

./view --platforms./join
FIG.0 / LAB FLOOR, BUILDING 4 / 06:10 PERIMETER FLIGHT IN PROGRESS

## [01]PLATFORMS

Four platforms, all designed and machined in-house. Spec sheets below are measured, not aspirational.

### QA-6 “VECTOR”

DEPLOYED

Six-axis manipulator

Fourth revision. Learned to fold a shirt in 2024, to fold it well in 2025. Currently unloading dishwashers at partner sites and keeping notes.

QA-6 measured specification
AXES | 6
REACH | 940 mm
PAYLOAD | 12 kg
REPEATABILITY | ±0.02 mm
CONTROL LOOP | 1 kHz / EtherCAT
MASS | 38 kg

### QR-2 “SURVEYOR”

FIELD TRIALS

All-terrain research rover

Eleven-hour endurance, four independent drive pods, one incident involving a hedge (resolved). Mapping the Foundry Walk quarry since March.

QR-2 measured specification
DRIVE | 4 × independent pods
TOP SPEED | 1.8 m/s
ENDURANCE | 11 h
PAYLOAD BAY | 40 L
SENSING | LIDAR + stereo + IMU
INGRESS | IP54

### QD-9 “KESTREL”

DEPLOYED

Autonomous quadrotor

Onboard visual-inertial odometry, no GPS, no excuses. Flies the lab perimeter every morning at 06:10 and files a report nobody asked for.

QD-9 measured specification
ROTOR SPAN | 620 mm
MASS | 1.4 kg
FLIGHT TIME | 34 min
WIND LIMIT | 12 m/s
AUTONOMY | Onboard VIO
NAVIGATION | GPS-denied

### QC-1 “BASEMENT”

ALWAYS ON

Fleet learning cluster

The only platform that never leaves the building. Replays every grasp, fall, and near-miss from the fleet overnight; the robots wake up slightly better.

QC-1 measured specification
NODES | 24
ACCELERATORS | 96
STORAGE | 2.4 PB
INTERCONNECT | 800 Gb/s
SIM THROUGHPUT | 40k episodes/day
COOLING | Rear-door liquid

## [02]RESEARCH AREAS

- RA-01

  ### Manipulation

  Grasping things that were not designed to be grasped. Deformables, transparents, the lab mug with the broken handle.

- RA-02

  ### Locomotion

  Wheels where wheels work, legs where they do not. Recovery behaviors trained on 40,000 simulated falls and eleven real ones.

- RA-03

  ### Perception & SLAM

  Maps that survive moved furniture. Long-horizon localization without GPS, beacons, or wishful thinking.

- RA-04

  ### Fleet learning

  Every robot’s worst moment becomes every robot’s training data. Nightly consolidation across the whole fleet.

- RA-05

  ### Sim-to-real

  Closing the gap between the physics engine and the physics. Domain randomization with a grudge.

- RA-06

  ### Human-robot safety

  Force limits, intent signaling, and the hard problem of standing politely in a corridor. Certified before clever.

## LAB TELEMETRY SNAPSHOT 2026-07-31 06:12 UTC

  2,412 days
Lab uptime
  18.4M episodes
Logged to BASEMENT
  94.2% grasp
Success, novel objects
  61,300 hours
Teleop demonstrations
  9.4 km
Rover km per intervention
  0 incidents
Reportable, 36 months

## [03]THE LINE

FIG.3 / ASSEMBLY LINE, EAST BAY. BATCH 7 OF VECTOR REV D.

We build in batches of eight. Small enough that every unit gets torqued by a person who cares, large enough that the fixtures pay for themselves. Machining, harness, and calibration happen within forty meters of the researchers who will file the bug reports.

The line runs two weeks per quarter. The rest of the time it is a repair bay, which tells you most of what field robotics is.

- CNC + wire EDM in-house
- Harnesses hand-built, continuity-tested twice
- Every joint serialized and torque-logged
- Calibration rig shared with RA-01

## [04]PUBLICATIONS

1. 2026

   ### Grasping the Long Tail: Fleet-Scale Consolidation for Household Objects

   Okafor, Lindqvist, Marsh · Proc. CoRL

   [PDF] [BIB]
2. 2026

   ### KESTREL: Perimeter Flight Without GPS, Twelve Months of Mornings

   Marsh, Tran · Field Robotics Letters 11(2)

   [PDF] [BIB]
3. 2025

   ### Eleven Real Falls: What Simulation Still Gets Wrong About Recovery

   Lindqvist, Adeyemi, Okafor · Proc. RSS

   [PDF] [BIB]
4. 2025

   ### Politeness as a Control Objective: Corridor Negotiation at 0.8 m/s

   Tran, Marsh, Whitlock · HRI Workshop on Shared Spaces

   [PDF] [BIB]
5. 2024

   ### VECTOR-3 to VECTOR-4: A Post-Mortem on Folding

   Okafor, Whitlock · Quanta Technical Report QTR-041

   [PDF] [BIB]

Preprints on request. QTR series available under NDA, except QTR-041, which is mostly an apology to a shirt.

## [05]PARTNERSHIPS

We deploy with partners whose problems are boring, repetitive, and therefore perfect. Pilots run 90 days with our engineers on-site.

- Meridian Freight Systems Depot logistics
- Halcyon Port Authority Container inspection
- Bluefield Agriculture Group Orchard survey
- Northgate Medical Logistics Sterile transport
- Corvid Aerospace Airframe inspection
- The Ossett Institute Assistive research

## [06]CAREERS

Five open positions. We hire people who fix the thing before writing the ticket, then write the ticket anyway.

ROLE | TEAM | TYPE | LOCATION
--- | --- | --- | ---
Research Engineer, Manipulation | RA-01 | Full-time | New Arden
Perception Scientist | RA-03 | Full-time | New Arden / hybrid
Field Test Lead, Rover | RA-02 | Full-time | New Arden + quarry
Machinist & Fabricator | Workshop | Full-time | New Arden
Research Intern | Any | Summer 2027 | New Arden

Apply with something you have built: join@quanta.example