Robot Registry Foundation
The ICANN for robots — permanent identity, RCAN verification, and federated registry for every robot on the planet.
No canonical robot identity system existed. The Robot Registry Foundation fixes that: permanent Robot Registration Numbers (RRNs), Ed25519 ownership proof, multi-tier verification, and §21 RCAN integration.
Why It Exists
The Problem
Every domain on the internet has a canonical identifier — ICANN and DNS make that possible. Robots have no equivalent. A robot manufactured in Germany, deployed in Japan, and issuing commands to a swarm in California has no globally verifiable identity.
Without a standard identity layer, there's no way to verify a robot's provenance, check its safety certification history, or trace its actions in a multi-robot system. That's a gap that will cause real harm as autonomous robots scale.
The Solution
The Robot Registry Foundation provides a permanent, open registry for robot identity. Every registered robot gets a Robot Registry Number (RRN) — a globally unique identifier anchored to a cryptographic ownership proof.
The registry integrates with the RCAN protocol (§21 Registry Integration), giving robots not just an identity but a verifiable, auditable presence in any RCAN-compliant system.
Registry at a Glance
RRN-000000000001OpenCastor Bob (Community)RRN-000000000002Spot — Boston DynamicsRRN-000000000003Unitree Go2RRN-000000000004SO-ARM101 — TheRobotStudio / HFRRN-000000000005OpenCastor Alex (Verified)
RCAN v1.4 §21 Registry Integration — RRN resolution, verification tier enforcement, ownership proof handshake
Cryptographic keypair ownership — every RRN is anchored to a verifiable public key
Community → Verified → Certified → Accredited
Technical Architecture
Registry Core
- - Permanent Robot Registration Numbers (RRNs) — globally unique, collision-free
- - Ed25519 keypair ownership — robots prove identity, not just claim it
- - RCAN §21 compliant API — resolves RRNs, returns verification tier, public key, metadata
- - Hardware safety capability declarations (physical_estop, SIL/PLe level, force sensors, watchdog MCU)
- - Protocol 66 conformance integration — registry entries can declare P66 compliance level
- - Hosted on Cloudflare infrastructure; registration API backend in active development
Federation & Verification
- - §17 Distributed Node Protocol — namespace delegation to manufacturer-operated nodes
- - Multi-tier verification: self-attested community through test-lab-backed accreditation
- -
/.well-known/rcan-node.jsonmanifest for federated resolution - - Standardized error codes 6001–6006 for federation failures
Current Status
Registry: Live at robotregistryfoundation.org — seed registry launched with 5 initial robots, open for submissions. View the registry · rcan.dev/registry redirects here.
RCAN integration: §21 (Registry Integration) in RCAN v1.4. OpenCastor and rcan-py resolve RRNs through the RRF API. All 5 seed registry robots now carry hardware_safety declarations (physical_estop, hardware_watchdog_mcu, force_torque_sensors, human_proximity_sensors, sil_level, voltage_monitoring) — safety capability data is now part of robot identity.
Foundation status: Not yet a legal entity. Charter in community drafting — exploring US 501(c)(6), Swiss foundation, or EU AISBL structures. Looking for co-founders who understand that governance structure matters as much as the technology.
ISO/TC 299: Engagement underway. RCAN is positioned as audit infrastructure, not a compliance mechanism — providing the plumbing that makes AI accountability demonstrable.
Register Your Robot
If you're building AI-driven robots, get an RRN now. The earlier you adopt, the less you'll have to retrofit.