Beihang University 北京航空航天大学
Beijing aerospace university whose Robotics Institute (est. 1987) built a six wheel-legged planetary exploration robot and studies space manipulators.
Beihang University (BUAA) is a public research university in Haidian District, Beijing, affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. It was founded in 1952 as Beijing Aeronautics College, formed by merging the aeronautical engineering departments of eight universities, and it was renamed Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in April 1988. The university describes itself as the first higher-education institution in aeronautics and astronautics established after 1949. It is part of Project 211, Project 985 and the Double First-Class initiative. Beihang reports more than 48,000 students and more than 6,300 faculty and staff, including 31 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. It operates the Xueyuan Road and Shahe campuses in Beijing and a Hangzhou International Campus in Zhejiang Province. Its main campus is at 37 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100191.
Robotics is a long-standing discipline at Beihang. The university says it has carried out robotics research since 1979, established its Robotics Institute in 1987 and awarded China's first PhD in the field. In 2026 it launched what it calls China's first undergraduate program in Embodied Intelligence, which combines AI, robotics, computer engineering and control.
Beihang's space-robotics work is centred on the School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation and is research and ground-test oriented. No Beihang-built robot is known to have flown. In March 2021, Ding Xilun, Wang Yecong, Wang Yaobing and Xu Kun published a review of structures, ground verification and calibration technologies of space robotic systems for on-orbit servicing in Science China Technological Sciences (vol. 64, no. 3, pp. 462-480), co-affiliated with China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. The review sorts on-orbit servicing robots into large space manipulators, humanoid space robots and small space manipulators. It also analyses capture end-effectors, compares microgravity-simulation test facilities and discusses on-orbit kinematic calibration. In 2024, the same group and engineers from the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology published a design and gait-verification study of a wheel-legged hexapod robot for extreme lunar terrain.
In May 2026, Beihang announced that a team led by Professor Xu Kun at its Robotics Institute had developed what it calls China's first six wheel-legged hybrid robot for planetary exploration. The robot was featured on the CCTV programme Innovation in Progress. It is designed for crater-dense, rocky lunar and Martian terrain. Its circular body carries six evenly spaced legs and can move in any direction. In simulated-terrain tests it kept three legs on the ground at all times and carried a payload of 35 kg, more than twice that of a quadruped. Wheels at the knee joints let it switch between walking and rolling. Gaits such as a narrow-passage 'kick gait' and an obstacle-crossing 'swing gait' are selected autonomously. Each leg can also act as a manipulator arm, with nearly 360-degree knee rotation. A binocular vision camera and AI perception let it identify objects and correct positioning errors. The robot can be teleoperated or run autonomously, and it has been demonstrated in public-security tasks. The team has also built a four wheel-legged robot inspired by roller skating.
Beihang students also compete in space-robot events. In 2024, a Beihang team with Shenzhen Polytechnic University won first place in the task-challenge category of the World Robot Contest-Space Robot Contest in Changsha. That contest is held under the guidance of the China Manned Space Engineering Office and focuses on robots for space-station operation, on-orbit servicing and crewed lunar exploration.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
Six wheel-legged hybrid planetary exploration robot
Hexapod wheel-legged prototype for lunar/Mars terrain: 35 kg payload, walk-roll switching via knee wheels, legs double as arms, binocular AI vision.
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Contact Beihang University
WEBSITE
https://www.buaa.edu.cnHEADQUARTERS
China
Company Facts
Founded
1952
Primary Role
Research Institute
Company Size
-
Primary Region
Asia-Pacific
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
Grant / Non-profit
Funding Total
-
Keywords
- Beihang University
- 北京航空航天大学
- space manipulator
- on-orbit kinematic calibration
- microgravity ground verification
- wheel-legged hexapod
- planetary exploration robot
- embodied intelligence
- capture end-effector
- Research Institute
- Legged Robot
- Aerospace & Space
- Education & Research
- Space Explore
- On Orbit Servicing
- Research Platform
