Chengdu Robot Dogs Greet University Freshmen, Teach Anti-Fraud Lessons

At Chengdu University's orientation area, a robot dog named "Bengbeng" followed a preset route to a photo spot, standing on two legs at times and tumbling or jumping at others, greeting incoming students along the way. The engineer responsible for the machine said the team optimized its model and related algorithms, making Bengbeng's motion control more responsive, its movement repertoire richer and the overall interaction more engaging.

A first-year student said such robots had mainly been seen on television or phone screens, and the chance to interact with one on registration day came as a surprise. The orientation was not only a performance: "Xiaoxin," a robot from Sichuan Tianjiang Xinhua Intelligent Technology, worked alongside anti-fraud volunteers on site, using voice interaction to explain scam prevention to students and parents. The campaign was turned into a public-interest mini-class built on human-robot interaction.

The university session was hosted by the Chengdu Bureau of Economy and Information Technology and its new economy committee, with the university's School of Mechanical Engineering assisting. Organizers describe the design concept as a two-way "1+N."

Under that idea, N products are placed in a single scenario so different product types can iterate, validate and compete in the same setting, while the same product is used across N scenarios — from primary and middle school to university — to suit different learning stages.

A university official said freshmen arrive with limited social experience and need stronger fraud awareness, so tying robot demonstrations to anti-fraud education lets them feel technology firsthand while helping the knowledge stick. The arrangement moves robots off the exhibition stand and into real campus service roles. Guidance, outreach and science popularization are not complex tasks, but real environments are far less predictable than labs: parents crowd around, students block paths and noise levels keep changing — variables any product must handle.