# Building and Validating an Open Robotics Network > A 2025 recap of how BitRobot moved from hypothesis to live network—launching subnets, deploying real-world robots, and generating open datasets that validate decentralized infrastructure for open robotics research. By Lidia Yadlos · January 5, 2026 Canonical: https://blockster.com/building-and-building-and-validating-an-open-robotics-network-an-open-robotics-network _At the start of 2025,_ _[BitRobot Network](https://bitrobot.ai/)_ _was just a working hypothesis: that a decentralized, subnet-based network could support real-world robotics research by coordinating hardware, contributors, compute, and data outside of traditional labs._ _—_ Over the year, that hypothesis was tested through live deployments and early subnets. We partnered with teams operating at the intersection of DePIN, AI, and crypto — including [@GEODNET](https://x.com/@GEODNET), [@ionet](https://x.com/@ionet), [@virtuals\_io](https://x.com/@virtuals_io), [@rayvo\_xyz](https://x.com/@rayvo_xyz), and others — while delivering data and resources to support research efforts from Google DeepMind, UC Berkeley, the University of Washington, Meta AI, and more. These collaborations resulted in the release of the largest open-source sidewalk robotics dataset on Hugging Face, as well as more than one million completed egocentric data tasks with Virtuals. Together, these early subnets validated BitRobot’s role as a network layer for coordinating resources to accelerate open robotics research. @frodobots served as the development lab, responsible for building and operating the hardware platforms, games, and teleoperation systems that enabled experimentation and data generation across the network. This update summarizes what was launched, tested, and validated in 2025. ## February 2025 ### Network Formation and Funding At the beginning of 2025, @FrodoBots Lab raised $8M to support the launch of BitRobot and early network development. Capital was allocated toward hardware design, initial subnet deployment, and the operational infrastructure required to run experiments across multiple locations. 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 Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal. [Post from @frodobots on X](https://twitter.com/frodobots/status/1890154013909479729) ## March 2025 ### Whitepaper and Ultimate Fighting Bots (UFB) Launch During this period, the BitRobot whitepaper was released, outlining the network’s approach to subnets, decentralized coordination, and incentive alignment for robotics research. In March, FrodoBots also launched Ultimate Fighting Bots (UFB) — @ufbots — a competitive robot fighting league designed as a media and entertainment format for real-world robotics. UFB explored whether entertainment could serve as an effective on-ramp for broader cultural engagement with robots, bringing visibility to real machines, live operation, and current hardware capabilities. [Post from @BitRobotNetwork on X](https://twitter.com/BitRobotNetwork/status/1911405485607055519) ## May 2025 ### Earth Rover Challenge and UC Berkeley Navigation Research Earth Rover Challenge #2 launched at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Atlanta, introducing a real-world navigation benchmark using sidewalk robots operating outside controlled environments. 🔗 [https://earth-rover-challenge.github.io/](https://earth-rover-challenge.github.io/) The second iteration expanded participation to include both AI teams and human operators. Eight university AI teams and five human gamer teams from @yieldguid completed identical navigation tasks across eight cities. [Post from @frodobots on X](https://twitter.com/frodobots/status/1932093535060439497) Human operators outperformed AI systems, underscoring the gap between simulation-based performance and real-world reliability. A UC Berkeley research team trained a navigation model (LogoNav) using crowd-sourced data generated through FrodoBots’ rover deployments. The model was evaluated on physical robots across six countries, validating globally distributed data collection paired with consistent real-world evaluation. [Post from @frodobots on X](https://twitter.com/frodobots/status/1922243792628797858) ## June 2025 ### Earth Rover Challenge Research from IROS 2024 Researchers from Google DeepMind, academia, and Michael Cho (co-founder of BitRobot and FrodoBots) published an IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine article on the Earth Rover Challenge at IROS 2024. The paper established Earth Rover Challenge as a credible real-world benchmark for low-cost outdoor robot navigation and reaffirmed that human operators still outperform autonomous systems in the wild. [Post from @frodobots on X](https://twitter.com/frodobots/status/1935124266460295231) ## July 2025 ### UFB’s First Live Fight Goes Viral UFB hosted a series of live events that significantly increased public visibility for real-world robotics and introduced BitRobot to a broader audience. Coverage included: - _New York Times_ — “Peak SF on a Friday Night Is a Robot Fight” - _Washington Post_ — “Humanoid Robots Were a Sci-Fi Dream. Suddenly They’re Everywhere” - _SF Standard_ — “The Most San Francisco Sport Ever?” - _SF Examiner_ — “Fighting Robots Animate Mid-Market Vertical Village” [Post from @bitrobotnetwork on X](https://twitter.com/bitrobotnetwork/status/2008279625227555150) ## August 2025 ### ET Fugi: First Live Subnet BitRobot launched ET Fugi (@et\_fugi), the network’s first live subnet. ET Fugi is a rover-based game where participants manually drive sidewalk robots through real environments, generating navigation data from everyday conditions such as curbs, obstacles, and pedestrian traffic. This marked BitRobot’s transition from architectural design to an actively operating, permissionless subnet. [Post from @ET\_Fugi on X](https://twitter.com/ET_Fugi/status/1951292389156704736) ## September 2025 ### CoRL Announcements: Hardware and Research Support At the Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL), BitRobot co-founder @micoolcho outlined the network’s long-term goal of supporting open, real-world robotics research through shared infrastructure. [Post from @BitRobotNetwork on X](https://twitter.com/BitRobotNetwork/status/1975190588514517003) Two initiatives were announced: - **RoboCap** — a low-cost hardware platform for global deployment - **$5M Grand Challenge Fund** — supporting open-source model development and exploratory research [Post from @BitRobotNetwork on X](https://twitter.com/BitRobotNetwork/status/1972695512957743527) ## October 2025 ### Berkeley CalHacks and SeeSaw (Subnet 05) BitRobot sponsored UC Berkeley CalHacks, where over 16 student teams built with BitRobot hardware and heard from speakers at OpenAI, 1X, Agility Robotics, and more. [Post from @BitRobotNetwork on X](https://twitter.com/BitRobotNetwork/status/1984274700697215064) Subnet SN/05: SeeSaw, launched with @virtuals\_io, collects egocentric video data from users performing everyday tasks to support human-object interaction research. SeeSaw collects egocentric video data—first-person recordings of people performing everyday tasks using their iOS devices—to support research into human-object and human-environment interaction. [Post from @BitRobotNetwork on X](https://twitter.com/BitRobotNetwork/status/1983569299546546648) ## November 2025 ### SeeSaw Reaches One Million Tasks Within its first month, SeeSaw surpassed one million completed tasks, demonstrating how incentives and gamified interfaces can accelerate real-world data collection. ## December 2025 ### UFB International Showcase and TeleArms UFB expanded internationally with its first global robot cage-fighting event at Solana Breakpoint Abu Dhabi, bringing real-world robotics to thousands of spectators. [Post from @BitRobotNetwork on X](https://twitter.com/BitRobotNetwork/status/2000222331365630138) BitRobot also launched TeleArms, a teleoperation platform for robotic arms using LeKiwi and XLeRobot hardware from @sigrobotics. Demand exceeded initial beta capacity. [Post from @BitRobotNetwork on X](https://twitter.com/BitRobotNetwork/status/2002065471554875802) During the same period, FrodoBots open-sourced the Earth Rovers platform on Hugging Face, releasing 7,000 hours of driving data from 40+ cities, curated with UC Berkeley researchers. [Post from @LeRobotHF on X](https://twitter.com/LeRobotHF/status/1996269874197258266) ## Key Takeaways from 2025 - A subnet-based network can coordinate contributors, hardware, and data in live environments - Partnerships across infrastructure, hardware, and research institutions are essential to scale - Games and incentives meaningfully expand participation - Real-world deployment produces datasets impossible to replicate in simulation ## Looking Ahead In 2026, the focus shifts to scaling the open robotics ecosystem — more partners, more hardware, and larger, more diverse real-world datasets. The goal is to support breakthroughs from an open, shared robotics lab, not closed, siloed environments. The world’s open robotics lab is being built — together. Join us.