Galgotias University came under fire after a video circulated online showing a professor claiming the university had developed a robotic dog named Orion at the India AI Impact Summit in Delhi. The video sparked criticism after viewers noted the robot was in fact a commercially available model from China-based Unitree Robotics.
In the clip, professor Neha Singh said Orion was built in-house at the university’s Centre of Excellence and could perform surveillance and monitoring tasks while freely moving around the campus. Critics accused the university of misleading the public by presenting Chinese technology as its own.
Following the backlash, the Greater Noida based private university issued a statement denying it had ever claimed to build the robot. “Galgotias has not built this robodog, neither have we claimed,” the university said. “Our focus is on training students who will soon design, engineer and manufacture such technologies in India.”
The university added that Orion was procured from Unitree Robotics as part of its effort to provide students exposure to advanced technologies from China, Singapore, and the US. “It is not merely a machine on display — it is a classroom in motion,” the statement said, noting that students are experimenting with the device to test its capabilities and expand learning.
Unitree’s “robodogs” are commercially available quadruped robots designed for tasks ranging from surveillance and obstacle navigation to industrial inspection. The company is known for offering these robots at a lower price point than competitors such as Boston Dynamics’ Spot.