background for news stories
Recently, the pictures taken by some China underwater robots in the deep sea have attracted many people’s attention: the remote-controlled unmanned submersible Discovery carried on the scientific research ship photographed the "underwater garden" and collected two snail-like mollusks with pink heads and white bodies; The high-definition video of the manned submersible "Deep Sea Warrior" in the 2000m deep sea was also exposed for the first time, showing us a magical underwater world … …
In fact, including Discovery and Deep Sea Warrior, the underwater robots developed by our country have formed a "family", and here we will introduce some representative members.
"Hairen No.1"
China’s first underwater robot
The ocean occupies the vast majority of the earth’s surface, pregnant with endless resources and rich treasures, and the development and utilization of marine resources has become a competitive development strategy for all countries. Underwater robot is an important means to explore the ocean. Generally speaking, underwater robots can be divided into three categories: cabled underwater robots (ROV), cableless autonomous underwater robots (AUV) and manned submersibles (HOV).
According to the domestic market demand, in 1979, the team headed by Jiang Xinsong, an academician of China Academy of Engineering, first put forward the research plan of marine robots in China. In 1982, China Academy of Sciences formally established a project to carry out "Application Research of Intelligent Machinery in the Ocean".
The first underwater robot in our country was born in 1985. It is called "HR-01" and it is an underwater robot with cables.
The prototype of "Hairen-1" developed by Shenyang Institute of Automation successfully made its maiden voyage in Dalian in December 1985. In 1986, the improved "Hairen-1" completed its sea trial.
With a total power of 20 horsepower and a maximum working depth of 200 meters, Hairen-1 is a research work carried out by Chinese researchers completely relying on independent technology and based on domestic supporting conditions, and it is an important milestone in the development history of underwater robots in China.
"Explorer"
China’s first cableless autonomous underwater robot
In 1994, Shenyang Institute of Automation successfully developed the autonomous cableless underwater robot Explorer. Its working depth reached 1000 meters, and the cable connected with the mother ship was thrown away, realizing the leap from cable to no cable.
In October of that year, "Explorer" conducted five voyages of sea trials in the South China Sea of China, and successfully dived to a depth of 1,000 meters near the Xisha Islands, becoming a pioneer for China to reach the deep sea.
CR-01 China’s first cableless autonomous underwater vehicle facing 6000m.
In 1992, Shenyang Institute of Automation cooperated with Russian Institute of Marine Technology, 702 CSSC, Institute of Acoustics of Chinese Academy of Sciences and other units to develop an autonomous underwater robot of 6000m class — — CR-01。
It visited the Pacific Ocean twice in 1995 and 1997 respectively, and obtained a large number of videos, photos and audio images of polymetallic nodules on the seabed, which provided an important basis for resource exploration in the pioneer area. Its success made China one of the few countries in the world with 6,000m underwater robots at that time.
The significance of its successful development also lies in the fact that China has the ability to conduct detailed exploration of the sea areas except trenches. In 1991, China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association was approved by the United Nations as the fifth pioneer investor in deep-sea mining, undertaking the exploration task of 300,000 square kilometers of ocean floor, and finally having the priority right to exploit 75,000 square kilometers of sea area with the richest mineral resources. CR-01 provides a powerful technical means for this.
In 1997, CR-01 was rated as one of the top ten scientific and technological advances in China. In the same year, CR-01 won the special prize of scientific and technological progress and the comprehensive major achievement award of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Arctic ARV underwater robot goes to polar expedition
We all know about ROV, AUV and HOV, so what is ARV? In 2002, Shenyang Institute of Automation first put forward the concept of ARV — — ARV is a new concept underwater robot which combines the technical characteristics of AUV and ROV.
In July, 2008, the first generation of Arctic ARV took the "Snow Dragon" scientific research ship and joined the team for the third Arctic scientific research in China. In July, 2010, he participated in the fourth Arctic expedition in China again. At 86 degrees and 50 minutes north latitude, it was lowered from the ice cave for the first time, and the investigation under the ice was carried out successfully, which set a new record for the operation of underwater robots at high latitudes in China.
Arctic ARV can be said to be an effective, continuous, autonomous and real-time observation means for Arctic scientific research. The seemingly small Arctic ARV is equipped with measuring equipment such as temperature and salinity meter, luminous flux meter and underwater camera, and has a variety of scientific observation capabilities. A variety of scientific observation data, such as irradiance of light transmission under ice, ice bottom shape, sea ice thickness, temperature, salinity, depth and marine environmental parameters, can be obtained, which greatly supplements the existing monitoring methods under ice in the Arctic.
The Birth of Dragon’s Control System
In July 2012, the "Jiaolong" manned submersible (HOV) successfully completed the 7000-meter sea test, with a maximum dive depth of 7062 meters. Shenyang Automation Institute, as one of the main research units of Jiaolong, undertook the development of control system and technical support tasks.
The control system of manned submersible is the "brain and nerve" of the manned submersible. It collects the operation instructions of the operation panel and the information of various sensors on the manned submersible, and outputs instructions to control various actuators through the analysis and judgment of the "brain", so that the submersible can complete various actions, and at the same time, the collected information is stored and displayed, which is convenient for submariners and commanders to operate.
Deep-sea satellite in "Qianlong-1" undersea resources exploration equipment
"Qianlong No.1" is China’s first 6000m AUV deep-sea practical equipment, with all independent intellectual property rights. This project is a Twelfth Five-Year Plan project for the investigation and development of international marine resources formulated by the Office of China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association, which is jointly developed by Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Acoustics, Harbin Engineering University and other units. It can cover 98.8% of the ocean area, and it is called the deep-sea satellite in the equipment of underwater resources exploration. Specifically, it mainly serves the exploration of deep-sea polymetallic nodule mining areas in China.
In 2015, Shenyang Institute of Automation, China Academy of Sciences undertook the project "Practical transformation of 6000m underwater unmanned cableless submersible (AUV)", and passed the project acceptance organized by the office of China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association with excellent results. The successful development of "Qianlong No.1" has provided important technical equipment for China to carry out large-scale fine exploration of deep-sea resources, which indicates that China’s deep-sea resources exploration equipment has reached the practical level and made China’s AUV technology and products enter the international advanced ranks.
"Qianlong No.2" is a cute yellow fat fish.
"Second Brother" of "Hidden Dragon" Family — — "Hidden Dragon II" must be familiar to everyone. And "Big Brother" — — Compared with "Qianlong No.1", on the one hand, its design working depth is 4500 meters; On the other hand, it mainly serves the exploration of sulfide in deep-sea hydrothermal areas in China.
"Qianlong No.2" is the subject of the theme project "Deep-sea Submersible Technology and Equipment" in the field of marine technology in the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan". It is organized and implemented by the Office of China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association, and developed by Shenyang Institute of Automation as the overall technical unit together with the Second Institute of Oceanography of the State Oceanic Administration and other units. In June 2016, the project passed the acceptance.
During the development of the project, some key technologies, such as brand-new vertical flat fish-shaped design of non-rotating body, collision avoidance control method under complex seabed topography, high-precision magnetic detection, comprehensive detection of hydrothermal anomalies and rapid data processing, have been broken through, and a number of effective data such as water anomaly, magnetic detection and terrain detection in hydrothermal area have been obtained in the experimental application in the southwest Indian Ocean. "Qianlong II" became the first unmanned submersible in China to obtain the classification certificate of China Classification Society (ccs).
On April 6th this year, the "Qianlong II" unmanned submersible, which carried out the 49th voyage of China Ocean in the southwest Indian Ocean, successfully completed its 50th dive, setting a new record for the number of dives of deep-sea autonomous underwater robots in China.
(Special "China Science Expo" WeChat WeChat official account feed)