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The Experimental Tourist

WVU roboticist Yu Gu lets his curiosity lead him — all the way to outer space

By West Virginia University

February 26^th, 2026

Yu Gu has designed robots that weigh mere ounces, and some that weigh hundreds of pounds. With his students at West Virginia University, Gu has created autonomous robots that operate independently, as well as ones that “swarm” together.

A professor in the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering at the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, Gu calls himself a “life tourist,” and curiosity is his way of looking at robots and the world.

“Robotics is such a new field. It’s wide open,” he said.

Robots built for Mother Nature

When Gu thinks about robots, he makes connections that stretch all the way from interstellar space to the insects and animals here on Earth.

“I’m curious about nature and it’s been a source of inspiration,” he said.

Gu isn’t talking about straightforward “biomimicry,” when roboticists try to replicate natural designs and systems, like the flapping of a bird’s wings or the navigation of an ant.

What interests him are robots capable of handling nature’s uncertainties and complex environments.

Many robots work in the lab but fail in the real world when they encounter unpredictable obstacles, lost signals, and changes in light and weather, he explained.

That’s why his research group designs robots for the messy realities of fields, caves and alien planets.

There’s Cataglyphis, the autonomous rover named after a desert ant.

There are Bramblebee and Stickbug, precision pollinator robots developed to help the agriculture industry address the decline of natural pollinators. Intended for use on farms where the wind, weather, terrain, and crops and other plant life all introduce uncertainties, Bramblebee and Stickbug inspect plants and detect blooms, then plan efficient paths to pollinate them.

And there’s Loopy, a unique shape-shifting robot composed of 36 interconnected cells arranged in a ring. Each independent “cell” responds to temperature, light and position, allowing the system to collectively adapt and learn autonomously. Inspired by ant swarms and plant root systems, Loopy can mark contamination boundaries without direct programming.

Scott Harper examines a chart on a clipboard while Yu Gu watches. Harper wears a NASA cap and dark blue shirt. Gu wears a blue jacket and ID badge. — Student Scott Harper, left, and Professor Yu Gu examine the chart of the field during the 2016 NASA Sample Return Robot Challenge at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Student Jenn Nyugen works with Bramblebee, a robotic pollinator, at the WVU Davis College Greenhouse, May 6, 2019.

A black, modular robot snake rests on a white surface. The robot is composed of cube-shaped segments connected by wires and circuit boards. — Loopy is a shape-shifting, multicellular robot developed by WVU researchers.

The Sample Return Robot Challenge team practices for their return trip to Worcester Polytechnic Institute, August 30, 2016.

Roboticists built for exploration

Gu grew up in a coal mining region in China, about a 10-hour train ride west of Shanghai, in a city with an industrial heritage not unlike Morgantown’s. As a child, he spent most of his time outdoors, developing his preoccupation with the natural world.

“We didn’t have electronics, or even a lot of toys, so walking in the woods and catching bugs was the main way to kill time for kids,” he said.

In the early 2000s, Gu landed in Morgantown for his doctoral studies. At WVU, his graduate work focused on unmanned air vehicles. After earning his doctorate, Gu remained and joined the Statler College faculty.

Though he was raised in a family of teachers, he said learning to teach has been a continuous process.

“I’m looking for an environment where I can try new things and different ideas and explore them with students,” he said. “That’s what motivates me.”

Today, Gu’s Interactive Robotics Laboratory gives graduate and undergraduate researchers a space for open-ended exploration. But his excitement about mentoring students began early in his teaching career, he said, when he started leading a WVU team in the NASA Sample Return Robot Centennial Challenge, a competition that tasked teams with building a fully autonomous robot that could find, retrieve and return samples in a large field environment.

When Gu launched the Centennial Challenge team at WVU, he was “digging students out of classrooms,” he said, “and we were learning together very quickly.”

Not knowing everything at the start encouraged their creativity, he now believes. The team operated like a start-up: curious, open-minded and unafraid of failure.

Eventually, WVU won the Sample Return Robot challenge three times.

“I’ve tried to maintain the mentality we developed then, of learning by doing, trying something to see if it works or not, and not worrying too much about what we don’t know,” he said.

“WVU students are suited for hands-on learning. If you present equations to some students, they may not connect. If you let them explore and run into questions, then they get into it,” he said. “It helps them open doors.”

These days, Gu oversees the WVU University Rover Challenge team. The URC team designs a robot for an international competition run by The Mars Society, in which rovers built by over 100 teams from 15 countries simulate missions on Mars.

More than 80 WVU students have joined forces on the URC team — 50 who participate through classes they’re taking, plus 30 volunteers. For the last three years, Gu said, WVU has consistently ranked in the competition’s top two teams, and many of the students who have led WVU teams have gone on to work at SpaceX and Blue Origin, leading private space companies.

“With the Centennial Challenge, we were trying to win,” he said. “The focus was on building the best robot possible. Now, with the University Rover Challenge, my goal is a student-led, self-sustaining team. The focus is learning.”

Six people stand outside near a brick building and a homemade telescope. Three people stand behind the telescope, and three stand in front of it. — Yu Gu (third from left) poses on Evansdale campus with his 12.5" F6 Newtonian telescope and the friends who helped him build it.

Large telescope sits on a wooden deck, pointed upwards towards the sky. The telescope is white and black, with a silver tube. Trees and houses are visible in the background. — On the porch of Yu Gu's home, a telescope he built by hand has allowed him to capture photos of outer space, including Mars.

Image of the sun, an orange sphere against a black background, with visible surface details and sunspots. — In a technical feat, Yu Gu took this 2024 photograph of the sun with a hand-built telescope.

Dreams built for scale

A life tourist must record the journey, so Gu has amassed a collection of documentary tools that includes film cameras, modern mirrorless lenses and a dozen telescopes —instruments for capturing the natural world as well as the vast cosmos beyond.

“Astronomy has been my hobby since I was 10 years old. That was when Halley’s Comet came by. It was a big deal when I was a kid, and I really wanted to see it, but we didn’t have telescopes,” he said.

That frustrated curiosity fueled a fascination that has lasted Gu’s whole life.

In 2003, Mars came closer to Earth than it has in 60,000 years, a once-in-800-lifetimes event. Gu set out on an ambitious mission to build a 12.5-inch Newtonian telescope.

And he succeeded, capturing his own images of the red planet.

In 2007, he embarked on an even bolder project, a 16-inch scope for planetary imaging.

Though the project spent some time gathering dust in Gu’s garage over the years, in 2020, another close approach of Mars to Earth prompted him to finish it at last.

He had to finish it, Gu said, for the same reason he started it — to “dream bigger.”

Asian male faculty member stands in a WVU lab. He wears a plaid shirt and khaki pants. A miter saw and shelves of supplies are visible in the background. — Professor Yu Gu stands in a WVU engineering lab, September 24, 2018.

Footnotes

Story by Katie Short. Photography by Richard Lea-Hair, Jennifer Shephard, Brian Persinger, Krissy Kleiner and Yu Gu.

FootNotes

Story by Katie Short. Photography by Richard Lea-Hair, Jennifer Shephard, Brian Persinger, Krissy Kleiner and Yu Gu.

© 2026 West Virginia University

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