China’s domestically developed 4,500-meter-class deep-sea robotic vehicle has departed from Weihai Port in east China’s Shandong Province to undertake a joint scientific expedition in the South China Sea alongside the Harbin Institute of Technology’s Weihai branch.
Engineered with a proprietary seven-axis multifunctional hydraulic manipulator, the vehicle represents the resolution of over 30 critical technical hurdles, including deep-sea pressure sealing, high-output deep-water propulsion, long-range underwater communications, and multi-modal autonomous navigation. The robotic system is designed to execute demanding underwater operations, ranging from offshore oil and gas exploitation and pipeline inspections to mineral prospecting, scientific sampling, and emergency salvage missions.
The joint mission is structured to validate end-to-end operational performance in real-world environments, refine the national verification architecture for deep-sea hardware, and bridge the transition from laboratory prototypes to commercialized industrial deployment. Crucially, it provides sovereign technical capacity to safeguard China’s marine resource security and advance its maritime strategic objectives.