FrodoBots Lab Raises $8M to Launch BitRobot, A Crypto Network of Subnets For Embodied AI Research
Co-developed by FrodoBots Lab and Protocol Labs, BitRobot aims to enable global collaboration in Embodied AI research with crypto incentives
Frodobots Lab, a pioneer in crowdsourcing robotics data through gaming, announced today that it has raised $6 million in a seed round, bringing the total aggregate funding to $8 million , as it’s preparing to launch BitRobot, a network of subnets for embodied AI research. The round was led by Protocol VC, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Fabric Ventures, Zee Prime Capital, Tioga Capital, Sfermion, Solana Ventures, Virtuals Protocol, and angel investors including Solana Labs co-founders Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, and eight founders from other DePIN projects such as Aethir and Gensyn.
Co-developed by FrodoBots Lab and Protocol Labs, BitRobot is a crypto-incentivized platform built on Solana with a subnet-based architecture, enabling global collaboration and open-source advancements to tackle key challenges in robotics and AI.
Embodied AI enables intelligent agents, such as robotaxis, robotic arms, and humanoids, to interact with the physical world. Morgan Stanley projects the U.S. alone could have 63 million humanoid robots by 2050, driving a $3 trillion wage impact. Unlike AI tasks in the digital realm where vast amounts of text and image data are readily available, the physical domain lacks extensive repositories of robot actions and interactions. Advancement of Embodied AI also requires significant logistics investments in physical robot fleet deployment needed for large-scale real-world evaluation.
“In order to dramatically accelerate robotics AI, we need to incentivise a diverse set of stakeholders including robotic researchers, developers, robot manufacturers, compute providers, storage providers, robot owners, human operators, etc. Building on our previous experience growing the Filecoin ecosystem, we will work closely with FrodoBots Lab to balance incentives in this dynamic economy and help kickstart the BitRobot ecosystem.” said Juan Benet, founder of Protocol Labs.
FrodoBots Lab has been building in the intersection of crypto and robotics since 2022 and has made significant in-roads with its robotic gaming strategy, having deployed a global fleet of hundreds of sidewalk robots in over a dozen cities across all six continents, while open-sourcing a 2,000-hour real-world driving dataset, the largest of its kind in the public domain. Frodobots’ gamified model has also facilitated AI model evaluation in collaboration with world-class researchers from the likes of Google Deepmind, UC Berkeley, etc as well as key partnerships with crypto projects like IONet, Exabits, and YieldGuildGames.
BitRobot Whitepaper: Crypto x Robotics AI Research
Set to be published in February 2025 and co-authored by Michael Cho (FrodoBots Lab cofounder), Jonathan Victor (former Filecoin Ecosystem Lead, Ansa Research cofounder), and Juan Benet (Protocol Labs founder), the BitRobot Whitepaper lays out the network’s primary mission as well as the core concepts of BitRobot’s tokenomics.
In essence, the BitRobot network will consist of many subnets, with each subnet contributing a valuable output needed to advance Embodied AI.
“We envision each subnet to be a standalone robotic competition. For example, Subnet 1 could be a DePIN-anchored robotic gaming contest meant for collecting real-world urban navigation data with sidewalk robots, while Subnet 2 could be an ongoing contest among researchers to build ever-improving autonomous navigation models,” explained Michael Cho, co-founder of FrodoBots Lab.
Figure 1: An illustration of the types of subnets that can potentially run on the BitRobot Network
“Our goal while designing the incentives is to encourage active sharing of knowledge and resources – not only among the various Subnets, but also with other parties in the wider robotic ecosystem by facilitating access to the underlying resources. For instance, Subnet 3 could be a robotic simulation contest to generate synthetic data of humanoids cooking food while this dataset can be open-sourced so that the wide research community can continue building on top of it,” added Jonathan Victor, Ansa Research cofounder and former Filecoin Ecosystem Lead.
“BitRobot represents an ambitious effort for the crypto world to make a meaningful difference in the pursuit of Embodied AI. The team at FrodoBots Lab has already made significant in-roads with multiple research collaborations with top researchers as well as strategic partnerships with key players in this space. We’re excited to be part of this journey to push Embodied AI forward,” concluded Lacey Wisdom, partner of Protocol VC.
To learn more about BitRobot, users can visit: bitrobot.ai
About FrodoBots Lab
FrodoBots Lab is pioneering advancements in Embodied AI research at the intersection of crypto and gaming. By leveraging real-world robotics and gamified incentives, FrodoBots generates scalable datasets that propel AI research forward. In collaboration with DeepMind researchers, the company organized the Earth Rover Challenge, a mission to compare AI and human capabilities in robotic navigation. FrodoBots has also open-sourced FrodoBots-2K, the largest urban robotic navigation dataset, providing an invaluable resource for the AI research community. Through its Earth Rovers platform, FrodoBots combines real-world exploration with data generation, offering two versions of its sidewalk robots starting at $250 each. Users can learn more at: www.frodobots.ai
About Protocol Labs
Protocol Labs is an innovation network of more than 600 teams, projects, and movements, dedicated to driving breakthroughs in computing to push humanity forward. Its work spans the R&D pipeline, advancing innovations across frontier technologies, such as web3, neurotech, longevity, AR/VR, and more. For more information, users can visit protocol.ai.
About Protocol VC
Protocol VC funds early-stage computing breakthroughs, leveraging Protocol Labs as a key resource for innovation, helping research projects become successful startups that reach millions of users. Learn more at: www.protocol.vc
