Beijing Key Laboratory of Special Robot Technology for Extreme Environments
? Profile
The Beijing Key Laboratory of Special Robot Technology for Extreme Environment is a key laboratory accredited by the Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission and Zhongguancun Science Park Administrative Committee, and was approved for establishment in 2026. Driven by the needs of national major equipment and the construction of Beijing International Science and Technology Innovation Center, and closely aligned with Beijing’s industrial development orientation towards high-end, precision and advanced industries, the laboratory focuses on four extreme scenarios: nuclear power with intense radiation, deep-sea high pressure, high?altitude steel structures, and deep?space extremes. It conducts research in three directions for “AI + extreme environment special robots”: body configuration, protection technology, and intelligent control. The laboratory aims to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies such as multi?source perception fusion, autonomous path planning, adaptive dexterous manipulation, efficient human?robot collaboration, and environmental adaptation in extreme environments. By deeply integrating advanced technologies including embodied intelligence and multimodal large models, it seeks to realize intelligent, autonomous, and highly reliable operations of special robots in extreme environments, and to make up for the intelligence shortcomings of traditional equipment. The laboratory promotes full?chain innovation covering “technology R&D-prototype development-test verification-engineering transformation”, with the goal of building a technological innovation base that is domestically leading and internationally influential, supporting the independent and controllable development of China’s extreme environment intelligent equipment, and serving major national strategies as well as the construction of Beijing Science and Technology Innovation Center. The laboratory is headed by Professor Xue Long as Director, and Academician Tan Jianrong from Zhejiang University serving as the Director of the Academic Committee.
? Research Team
The laboratory has 77 permanent staff members and over 120 mobile personnel, including doctoral and master's students. Of the permanent staff, 38 are from Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology, and 39 are from partner institutions, namely China Nuclear Power Engineering Co., Ltd., the Shanghai Salvage Bureau of the Ministry of Transport, CASIC Intelligent Robot Co., Ltd., and Xinghaitu (Beijing) Artificial Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd. The laboratory team includes 25 members with full senior professional titles and 32 with associate senior professional titles.
? Research Directions
(1) Robot body technology in extreme environments: Targeting operational requirements in extreme scenarios such as intense nuclear radiation, deep-sea high pressure, and complex high?altitude steel structures, research focuses on the body configuration and flexible adaptation technologies for mobile robots and humanoid robots. The aim is to build a configuration design and flexible adaptation system suitable for multiple scenarios, optimize configuration parameters and operation strategies, and achieve flexible mobility and dexterous operation of the robots.
(2) Robot protection technology in extreme environments: Addressing protection requirements in extreme scenarios such as underwater high pressure and nuclear radiation, research concentrates on developing underwater protection, radiation protection, and working environment creation technologies. By means of composite sealing, the development of radiation-resistant materials, the construction of local dry working environments, and dynamic pressure balancing, the laboratory tackles critical pain points such as water resistance, leakage, and radiation damage, thereby enabling reliable and stable robot operation under extreme working conditions.
(3) Robot control technology in extreme environments: In response to the autonomous operation needs of robots across various extreme scenarios, research focuses on the development of large embodied intelligence models, environmental perception and task planning, and autonomous decision-making and control technologies. A full?chain control system is established to achieve on-device real-time inference, high-precision environmental perception, dynamic path planning, and precise and compliant control, enabling robots to perform a wide range of tasks autonomously, efficiently, and stably in extreme environments.
(4) Medical rehabilitation robot technology (featured direction): Leveraging the core technologies in body configuration, protection, and intelligent control developed for extreme environment robots, and addressing the operational demands of human–robot collaboration and precision rehabilitation in medical care, this direction focuses on research into brain–computer interfaces, bionic rehabilitation bodies, medical safety protection, and intelligent collaborative control technologies. By integrating brain signal decoding and human-robot interaction techniques, it optimizes lightweight and compliant body configurations along with medical safety protection systems, and achieves breakthroughs in key technologies such as human posture perception, brain–computer collaborative trajectory planning, and precise and compliant control, thereby realizing intelligent, personalized, and high-precision rehabilitation assistance. At the same time, the stringent requirements of medical scenarios (high precision and high reliability) in turn empower the optimization and iterative upgrading of body, protection, and control technologies for extreme environment robots, enabling multi-directional technological cross-integration and bidirectional synergetic advancement.
? Research Facilities
A dedicated experimental site covering an area of 3,607.58 square meters is planned to be allocated to the laboratory at the Qingyuan Campus of Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology. The laboratory is currently equipped with advanced instruments and equipment, including multiple series of humanoid robots, laser trackers, various models of special robots, and intelligent control and interaction systems, with total assets exceeding 70 million yuan, thereby establishing a comprehensive hardware support system to underpin cutting-edge research in the field of extreme environment special robots.
? Research Achievements
The Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology-Opto-Mechatronic Equipment Technology Beiing Area Major Laboratory was established in 2004. Over the past 20 years, it has continuously focused on meeting the national major strategic demands and the application of major engineering projects, concentrating on special robot technology and its applications, as well as advanced manufacturing technologies in extreme environments and applications. It has achieved a series of significant scientific research achievements that fill the domestic gap.
Robots for Complex Steel Structures in Extreme Environments: To address the urgent demand for automated robotic welding of complex steel structures, such as high-rise buildings, large-scale port machinery, and shield tunneling boring machines, this research was conducted under the auspices of several National Key R&D Programs. These include “System Integration and Application Demonstration of Robotic Manufacturing Technology for Extra-Large Port Machinery Components”, “Key Technologies and Application Demonstration of Flexible Welding Robots for Large-Diameter Oil and Gas Pipelines”, "Integration and Application Demonstration of Robot Manufacturing Technology System for Ultra-Large Components of Port Machinery". It pioneered a spatially constrained wheeled configuration for mobile welding robots operating in complex environments. By breaking through the complex working condition profiling movement and flexible adaptation technology, we resolved the issue of weld inaccessibility in confined spaces, on intricate curved surfaces, and across irregular cross-sections. Consequently, we have developed three distinct series, totaling twelve variants, of mobile welding robots, encompassing rail-less, track-based, and flexible profiling models. These achievements have been deployed in numerous national key projects, including the Beijing Daxing International Airport, the National Stadium ("Bird's Nest"), the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the Shanghai Tower, the Beijing Subway, and the National Speed Skating Oval ("Ice Ribbon"). The achievements were appraised by a panel of experts from the China Machinery Industry Federation. The expert committee, led by Academicians Shan Zhongde and Tan Jianrong, concluded that the overall technology has reached an internationally advanced level, with the mobile welding robot configuration design technology specifically recognized as internationally leading. The related achievements were honored with the First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress of the China Machinery Industry Federation (2022), the Second Prize of the Ministry of Education's Science and Technology (2025), and the Second Prize of the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology (2005).
Robots for Nuclear Extreme Environments: To address the demand for autonomous robotic operations in inaccessible high-radiation environments, this research was supported by National Key R&D Programs, including “Robotic System for Emergency Response to Accidents in Nuclear Facilities” and “Holistic Robotic Maintenance Solution for the Primary Loop of the Hualong One Nuclear Power Plant”. We have overcome the "bottleneck" challenge of radiation shielding for mobile robots in nuclear extreme environments. Furthermore, we invented novel protective materials and equipment enabling robotic operations in diverse extreme scenarios involving water immersion and radiation exposure, culminating in the development of specialized nuclear operational robots. These achievements have been deployed in major nuclear engineering projects worldwide, including the Fuzhou, Zhangzhou, Changjiang, Yangjiang, Taishan, Daya Bay, Fangchenggang, and Hongyanhe nuclear power plants in China, as well as the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant in Pakistan. The achievements were appraised by a panel of experts from the China Machinery Industry Federation. The expert committee, led by Academician Wang Guoqing and Chief Expert Gu Zhijie (Nuclear Radiation Protection), concluded that the overall technology has reached an internationally advanced level, with the robotic operation technology for special environments under intense radiation fields specifically recognized as internationally leading. The related achievements were honored with the First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress of the China Machinery Industry Federation (2024) and the Second Prize of the Beijing Municipal Technology Invention Award (2025).
Deepwater high-pressure extreme environment robots: Addressing the urgent demands for robot operations in deepwater high-pressure, highly corrosive, and low-visibility extreme scenarios such as marine engineering and ship maintenance, and supported by national projects including the major project of the 10th Five-Year “863” Program “Underwater Dry Pipeline Maintenance System,” the national key R&D program project “400m Deepwater Ultra-high Frequency Pulsed Arc In-situ Welding Technology and Equipment,” and “Development of Underwater High-pressure Dry Welding Technology and Equipment,” the laboratory made breakthroughs in the complete machine development of underwater robots and protection technologies for pressure-resistant core components, and developed a 400m deepwater high-pressure welding robot. The related robotic technologies have been successfully applied multiple times in CNOOC’s Bohai Sea and South China Sea operations, on the BH108 engineering vessel, on the 3000m deepwater pipelay crane vessel “Hai Yang Shi You 201,” and in the subsea pipeline maintenance and capacity expansion operations of the Yacheng 13-1 natural gas field. The achievements were appraised by industry experts, and an expert panel including Academician Tan Jianrong and Chief Scientist of Marine Engineering Li Zhigang concluded that the overall technology has reached an internationally leading level. Related achievements have won the First Prize for Tianjin Municipal Scientific and Technological Progress (2025), the First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress of the China Machinery Industry Federation (2025), and the Second Prize for Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Progress (2015).
Medical rehabilitation robots: In response to the development orientation adjustment of Beijing as a national central city and the major demand for developing elderly care, disability assistance, and medical service industries in Beijing, and supported by national and provincial/ministerial projects such as the national key R&D program projects “Development and Application Demonstration of Intelligent Multifunctional Nursing Bed for Clinical and Elderly Care Needs” and “Research and Development of Intelligent Robot Technology for Critical Care,” as well as Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission key projects “Development of Rehabilitation Robot for Winter Olympic Sports Injury Recovery” and “Development and Application Verification of Brain-Computer Interface Adaptive Upper and Lower Limb Collaborative Rehabilitation Robot Therapy System,” the laboratory has made breakthroughs in rigid-flexible coupled multi-rotation-center upper and lower limb rehabilitation exoskeletons and multi-position transformable reconfigurable support mechanism technologies, as well as methods for multi-modal weak signal feature extraction and multi-modal fusion for accurate and efficient movement intention understanding. A multi-constraint trajectory generation method based on posture-training-body parameters guided by movement intention and a multi-mode adaptive control strategy were proposed, and a multi-modal full-body rehabilitation robot system based on brain-computer interface was invented. The technological achievements have been applied in neurological and orthopedic rehabilitation at Beijing Tiantan Hospital and Tsinghua Changgung Hospital. Experts including Academician Wang Yaonan believe that the achievements address the needs of people’s life and health, have made numerous innovations in key technologies and equipment for the diagnosis and treatment of sports injuries, and the overall level has reached an internationally advanced level, among which the technology of polymorphic coupled physical factor sports injury rehabilitation robots has reached an internationally leading level. The related achievements have won the First Prize of the Science and Technology Award of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine and the First Prize of Henan Province Scientific and Technological Progress, among others.
? Key research tasks undertaken and completed, awards received, and intellectual property rights
In recent years, the laboratory has led over 50 scientific research projects, including those under the National Key R&D Program, the National Natural Science Foundation, the MIIT Intelligent Manufacturing New Model Special Project, the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Plan, and the Beijing Natural Science Foundation Key Projects, with total research funding exceeding 100 million yuan. The laboratory has cumulatively received more than 30 national, ministerial, and Beijing municipal science and technology awards, including one Second Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, one Second Prize for Excellent Scientific and Technological Achievements of the Ministry of Education, the Second Prize of the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Progress Award, one First Prize of the Tianjin Municipal Scientific and Technological Progress Award, one First Prize of Henan Province Scientific and Technological Progress Award, and more than 10 industry association awards such as the Scientific and Technological Progress Award of the China Machinery Industry Federation. The laboratory has published over 500 high-level papers in related research, with more than 400 indexed by SCI, and has been granted over 200 invention patents.
