What is the history of underwater robots?

Robots can explore the deep sea. Deep sea collection. Deep sea maintenance.

Exploitation of the ocean is an important issue facing mankind in the 2nd/Kloc-0th century. The exploration, investigation and effective utilization of international sea areas and seabed areas are the challenges for China to develop marine high technology and future marine industry.

Shenyang Institute of Automation is one of the influential scientific research entities at home and abroad to develop underwater robots and form products. It is the first autonomous underwater robot with and without cables in China. In a sense, the technical achievements of underwater robots in various stages of Shenyang Institute of Automation represent the development level and progress in this technical field in China. As a part of the advanced manufacturing base of "knowledge innovation" project of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang Institute of Automation has played an irreplaceable role in the research and application of underwater robots for the national underwater equipment technology, especially the important marine equipment technology and ocean development.

The institute has a design team with advanced concept, well-trained, rich experience and comprehensive technology. The underwater robot laboratory is equipped with complete and advanced test equipment and conditions, and three deep-water simulation pressure chambers can carry out underwater simulation tests with water depths of 1000m, 1500m and 7200m respectively. The test pool is 20m long, 12m wide and 9m deep, which can be used for performance test and debugging of various underwater robots. At present, the production capacity of large, medium and small underwater robots has been formed and various underwater engineering operations have been carried out at home and abroad.

As early as the end of 1970s, considering that the ocean is a broad application field, in the long run, developing robot science and technology based on the ocean is a pioneering work, and China Academy of Sciences has multidisciplinary and comprehensive research and development capabilities, so it is prepared to organize forces in the whole hospital to support the implementation of this major project. 1977 The natural science discipline planning meeting of China Academy of Sciences included the development of robot projects in the planning. Academician Jiang Xinsong put forward the idea of developing underwater robots after his visit to Japan. Since then, Shenyang Institute of Automation has locked in the strategic goal of "going out to sea" to serve marine development and engage in the application research of marine intelligent machines, and determined to "catch turtles in five oceans". 1983, this topic was officially listed as the key topic of China Academy of Sciences, which initiated the research field of intelligent robots and laid the foundation for the research and development of underwater robots.

In the past 20 years, "underwater robot" has been the focus of the institute's work, and then it has been included in the national key projects in the Sixth Five-Year Plan, the Seventh Five-Year Plan, the Eighth Five-Year Plan and the Tenth Five-Year Plan, and has become the key content of the intelligent robot theme project in the field of automation of the National 863 Plan. Shenyang Institute of Automation has developed a variety of underwater robot products by establishing a robot demonstration engineering base, which are applied to underwater observation, offshore operation and salvage engineering. Through international cooperation, the 6000m underwater robot has been successfully developed, making the research and development of underwater robots in China reach the international advanced level.

RECON-IV underwater robot has powerful functions and high reliability, and has become an internationally renowned brand. Many of its equipment are exported to the international market, and some of them have provided technical services for Nanhai oil drilling platforms for many years. The light underwater robots "Qian Hai-1" and "Goldfish" play an important role in underwater exploration and archaeology in coastal and inner lake areas. "Qianhai II" underwater robot provides strong technical support for national security with its powerful working functions. Starfish, a crawling underwater robot for laying submarine optical cables, is the first submarine self-propelled submarine optical cable laying machine in China, which has been successfully developed and put into practical application.

With the support of the National "863" Program, the 1000m depth cableless autonomous underwater robot Explorer and the 6000m depth "CR-0 1" and "CR-02" integrated units were completed, which indicated that China's autonomous underwater robot technology was in the leading position in the world. The 6000m underwater robot project is the top priority of the national "863" plan. Through cooperation with Russia, a 6000m underwater robot was successfully developed, and the deep-sea test was completed in August 1995. The development of 6000m underwater autonomous robot without cable involves automation, computer, underwater acoustics, deep diving, fluid mechanics, materials and energy, etc. It needs to solve high-tech problems such as underwater communication, high-pressure sealing, autonomous navigation and control, power system, energy system, collection and processing of various information, special materials and reliability. "CR-0 1" autonomous underwater vehicle has successfully completed the investigation of deep-sea resources in the Pacific Ocean for many times. In order to further improve the reliability, practicability, logistics support ability, mobility and endurance of the underwater 6000m autonomous robot, and make it develop from a usable prototype to a practical prototype, the underwater 6000m autonomous robot project was formally implemented from August 65438 to August 0996. Its goal is to provide a practical prototype of an underwater 6,000m autonomous robot for the oceanographic survey of China Oceanographic Association. The main work of the project is to improve the reliability of the original prototype and achieve the purpose of practicality. Experiments show that the improved CR-02 underwater 6000m cableless autonomous robot has excellent performance and high reliability, and can perform the specified tasks, realizing the transformation from manual programming to monitoring, and the technical level has reached a high level. Experts believe that underwater robots are the most advanced underwater detection equipment in the world. CR series high-performance underwater robots can record and photograph six kilometers of deep water video, survey seabed topography and profile, measure hydrography, determine the abundance of polymetallic nodules on the seabed, search and observe sunken objects on the seabed, automatically record various data including images, underwater motion trajectories and coordinate positions of robots, sail and work according to pre-programming, avoid obstacles automatically, have the functions of fault self-diagnosis and emergency floating, and can provide command remote control. This shows that China has the ability and means to successfully solve these high technologies, and has entered the practical stage of exploration and application of seabed polymetallic nodule resources. The successful development of the 6000m underwater robot has made China one of the few countries in the world capable of developing this kind of autonomous underwater robot. It can reach all the seabed areas in the world except the trench, that is, all the seabed with economic prospects, accounting for 98% of the ocean area, which provides powerful technical means and tools for China to enter the international ocean area and develop marine resources.

At present, the institute is developing an underwater manned robot with a depth of 7000 meters-also known as "submarine satellite", which is expected to be put into use in 2005. This means that China will have the ability to conduct detailed exploration in complex sea areas, including deep-sea trenches, and the pace of developing marine resources in China will be greatly accelerated. At present, only Russia, the United States, Japan and other countries in the world have underwater manned robots with similar depths. In the foreseeable future, with the further development on this basis, it will be possible for China's underwater manned robot to detect the Mariana Trench, which is the deepest trench in the world, with the depth exceeding 1 10,000 meters. Underwater manned robot is mainly used for marine scientific research and seabed resource exploration, and it is the key research topic during the Tenth Five-Year Plan of China 863 (200 1-2005). The underwater manned robot with a depth of 7000m developed this time was jointly developed by the Institute, China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation and Russian Academy of Sciences. Among them, China is responsible for the core technology of robot manufacturing, and Russia provides titanium alloy pressure shells and other technologies to maintain life safety. According to the agreement, China will enjoy all the independent intellectual property rights of robots.

China's second Arctic scientific expedition, sponsored by the State Oceanic Administration, carried a medium-sized ROV "sea-based" underwater robot developed by Shenyang Institute of Automation, and two scientific and technical personnel went out to sea with the ship. This is the first time that an underwater robot developed by Shenyang Institute of Automation has participated in an Arctic scientific expedition. It is reported that the underwater robot "Sea-based" has been put into use since China's second Arctic expedition entered the ice floe area of the Arctic Ocean. The robot can move freely at a depth of 300 meters, and take pictures, observe, measure and operate. And the thickness of sea ice is observed by bottom-looking sonar system. It has the advantages of long operation time, wide range, high safety, intuitive scientific research data and easy post-processing analysis, which is incomparable to others and other equipment. For the first time, a series of scientific research and demonstration applications of underwater robots have been carried out in the Arctic ice area, which is of great significance to expand the application field of underwater robots.

The achievements of underwater robot technology series have won more than 20 awards, such as the National Academy of Sciences, Liaoning Science and Technology Progress Award and the Gold Award of the World Invention Expo. Among them, the "Cr-01"6000m autonomous underwater robot won the 1995 China Academy of Sciences Science and Technology Progress Special Award and Comprehensive Award.

Shenyang Institute of Automation has always adopted an open and cooperative working mode in the research and development of underwater robots, and has good cooperation experience and relations with some research units and companies in the United States, Russia and Italy, and has formed a friendly and effective cooperation network with domestic China Ship Research Center, Institute of Acoustics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Harbin Engineering University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, East China Institute of Shipbuilding Engineering and other related advantageous units. In order to adapt to the further development of underwater robots and carry out industrial development, the institute plans to build a larger experimental production base for underwater robots in Hunnan Development Zone, Shenyang.

Today, mankind faces three major problems: population, resources and environment. With the rapid development of national economy and the increasing population of the world, more and more natural resources are consumed by human beings, and the resources on land are decreasing day by day. In order to survive and develop, marine development is imperative.

The ocean accounts for 7 1% of the earth's surface area and its volume is1400 million cubic kilometers. There are abundant biological and mineral resources on the seabed and in the ocean. There is still life on the seabed below 6000 meters. Life under such extreme conditions is particularly valued by biologists. There are abundant polymetallic nodules on the seabed, especially copper, manganese, nickel and cobalt, with an estimated reserve of10 million tons. 7 trillion tons. The reserves of manganese, copper and nickel on the seabed are 68 times that of land, 22 times and 274 times that of land respectively, and the uranium reserves for making nuclear bombs are as high as 4 billion tons, 2,000 times that of land. The ocean is also a huge energy reservoir, and the total amount of natural gas hydrate is equivalent to more than twice the total amount of land fuel resources. The seabed has stored13.5 billion tons of oil and nearly 140 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. Therefore, the exploration of the seabed is similar to space exploration, and it is also very attractive and challenging.

199 1 year, China 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 seabed, and finally having the priority right to exploit 75,000 square kilometers of sea area with the richest mineral resources. China government has taken marine development as one of the strategic priorities of national economic and social development in the 2nd/KLOC-0 century.

Underwater robot is the product of many modern high technologies and their system integration, which is of special significance to China's marine economy, marine industry, marine development and marine high technology. It is a historic and inevitable choice and solemn commitment of Shenyang Institute of Automation to take the development of underwater robots as the commanding height of marine strategy, to improve the level of major marine equipment in China, to provide complete sets of technology and advanced equipment support for pillar industries and emerging industries, to create favorable conditions and international competitiveness for the future marine industry and national marine strategy, and to turn strong technological leadership into strong industrial development advantages.