GuShiio.com The AI-driven robot revolution has become an irreversible trend, and the key lies in the timing of its full outbreak.
Original: Shayon Sengupta, Investment Partner, Multicoin Capital
Compiled by: Yuliya, PANews
Well-known crypto investment institution Multicoin announced on February 25 that it would strategically acquire US$8 million worth of GEOD tokens from the Geodnet Foundation. It is reported that Geodnet is a precise positioning network that provides critical positioning services for drones, autonomous vehicles and robots that may emerge in large numbers in the future through the DePIN(Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network) economic model.
The era of physical AI is coming
Although we have not yet reached the future scene of humanoid robots living together with humans depicted in Blade Runner 2049, in 2025, professional robots have quietly integrated into all aspects of modern life. Currently, language models are commoditizing intelligence, unleashing new creativity and changing the form of knowledge work. However, the development of AI is not limited to the fields of text, images and video. Its evolution is extending to the physical world, and robotics will become the next important frontier.
As the capabilities of AI models improve, their ability to understand and interact with the physical environment will be significantly enhanced. This shift will spawn new autonomous systems, from self-driving cars and humanoid robots to drones and industrial automation equipment, that will operate with unprecedented intelligence and autonomy. For these robots to function, they all need to answer a basic question: Where am I?
Positioning: A $5 billion problem
When tens of millions of autonomous and semi-autonomous devices are deployed, they all face the same challenges:spatial perception。Drone delivery, self-driving cars navigating in dense urban environments, and agricultural machines performing precise sowing all require sub-centimeter positioning accuracy to operate safely and efficiently.
To achieve such high precision, these systems rely on sensor fusion, combining multiple positioning methods.
- LiDAR(LiDAR) can provide high-resolution depth mapping, but it performs poorly in foggy or rainy days (and has problems such as high weight, high power consumption, and high cost).
- radar(RADAR) provides robust distance measurements but lacks fine accuracy.
- Vision-based SLAMTechnology supports real-time mapping, but performance will be significantly degraded in low visibility environments.
Among the various existing positioning solutions, positioning systems based on GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) combined with RTK (Real-Time Dynamic) base station correction are recognized as one of the most reliable solutions.
Due to atmospheric interference and multipath errors, standard GNSS positioning has an inherent accuracy deviation of 5-10 meters. RTK solves this problem by using fixed base stations to compare satellite signals with known positions and transmit real-time correction data to achieve centimeter-level accuracy-which is crucial for physical AI applications. Currently, mainstream robot and automation companies integrate RTK into their systems:
- DJI (DJI) is used for high-precision drones;
- John Deere is used for self-driving tractors;
- Tesla is used for self-driving cars;
- Boston Dynamics is used in industrial inspection robots.
Source: GNSS Store
However, RTK currently faces cost challenges. The construction and maintenance of RTK base stations require a large amount of capital investment, including various investments in hardware, site acquisition and maintenance. Traditional vendors such as Trimble, Hexagon, and Topcon build base stations for their own and charge thousands of dollars for each tracking device, which limits their accessibility and deployment speed. Coverage is often concentrated in profitable areas, resulting in many areas still unable to obtain high-precision positioning services.
Based on a token-motivated contributor ownership model, DePIN fundamentally reshapes the cost structure of global hardware-intensive networks. As the world’s largest precision positioning network, Geodnet uses this principle to encourage independent operators to install RTK base stations and provide correction data to earn token rewards.
By shifting the cost burden from a single operator to a distributed network, Geodnet is able to deploy production-grade RTK base stations at much lower costs than traditional providers, mainly by eliminating the two main costs of network building: land and labor. This allows Geodnet to expand coverage faster, ensure redundancy, and provide GNSS correction services that are more reliable than existing service providers.
This model creates an organically scaled global distributed network that significantly reduces end-user costs while ensuring quality of service. Geodnet has expanded rapidly since last year, growing from 1,400 base stations in November 2022 to 7,800 in June 2024. As of January 2025, it has more than 13,000 base stations, covering 4,377 cities in more than 142 countries.
At present, the Geodnet network has achieved a threshold scale and its service capabilities cover more than 60% of the GNSS correction market. It is worth noting that the network obtains this supply with extremely high capital efficiency-only 11% of the tokens have been issued to contributors in the past three years.
Geodnet is a model example of the DePIN model in practice. Geodnet base stations not only reduce acquisition and deployment costs by an order of magnitude (US$700 for consumer-grade miners versus US$12,000 for enterprise-grade RTK base stations), but also benefit from denser consumer-grade network deployments, annual pricing has also been significantly reduced. Geodnet is undoubtedly the most scalable and cost-competitive positioning solution in the world today.
Currently, Geodnet has generated approximately US$3 million in annualized chain revenue by providing services to leading drone companies such as Propeller, DroneDeploy, and Quectel, as well as government agencies such as USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture), demonstrating the fastest demand-side growth in the DePIN field.
In an early conversation with Geodnet founder Mike Horton, when asked how to gain access to the world’s most influential autonomous driving, drone and agricultural robot customers, his answer was consistent:The core structural cost advantages brought by the DePIN model.
The turning point has arrived
In the next ten years, robotics technology will usher in a period of explosive growth. From industrial manufacturing to daily life, tens of millions of robots are expected to be deployed in various fields. Drones will inspect power lines and pipeline facilities in the air, autonomous vehicles will reshape the pattern of freight and travel services, intelligent storage robots will replace manual operations on a large scale, and domestic humanoid robots will gradually enter thousands of households, assisting in handling daily affairs.
Precise positioning capabilities are the cornerstone of this robot revolution.Without reliable positioning data, it will be difficult for any autonomous robot to perform its due functions. Take autonomous vehicles as an example. In urban canyons with weak GPS signals, RTK-enhanced GNSS systems must be relied on for safe navigation; distribution drones also require centimeter-level accuracy to accurately land at designated charging stations. Therefore, RTK positioning is no longer just a supplement to sensors such as lidar and radar, but has become a critical infrastructure for robot operation.
At present, a large number of robot companies are paying high fees for traditional GNSS correction services every year, but they still face many problems such as limited coverage and unstable accuracy. In contrast, Geodnet not only significantly reduces service costs through its innovative DePIN model, but also provides better location services. This breakthrough solution is attracting more and more enterprise-level customers and providing reliable positioning guarantees for current and future autonomous robots.
The AI-driven robot revolution has become an irreversible trend, and the key lies in the timing of its full outbreak. The robot industry is accelerating, and Geodnet’s precise location network will ensure that these robots can operate safely and efficiently. In the upcoming robot era, Geodnet’s location service will play an irreplaceable role in providing accurate and reliable location information support for robots around the world.
