Highlights of the 9th International Underwater Operations & Offshore Industry Expo I

Tech Empowers Marine Ranching: "Seagull" and "Octopus" Dual Robots Steal the Show

Dalian Maritime University is a higher education institution with a long history and distinctive characteristics. It is the only university directly under the Ministry of Transport, one of the first batch of national "Project 211" and "Double First-Class" construction universities. The university was born for the sea, and its development history is an epitome of the construction and development achievements of China's higher maritime education. The university originated from the Ship Administration Section of the Shanghai Higher Industrial School under the Ministry of Posts and Communications in the late Qing Dynasty, established in 1909, and was founded to "save navigation rights and revitalize the national fortune." Prospering with the sea, the university has endured hardships, suspended operations, and changed its name several times during the war-torn years, but has always passed on the torch and continued to develop.

At this exhibition, the "Seagull" observation robot and the "Octopus" fishing robot from Dalian Maritime University worked in synergy to empower marine ranching and offshore engineering operation and maintenance with intelligent technology. They effectively solved industry pain points such as high risks, low efficiency, and the difficulty of working in harsh sea conditions associated with traditional diving operations, injecting new productive forces into the marine industry.

The "Seagull" series of underwater robots is equipped with acoustic-optical fusion multi-mode perception hardware, coupled with self-developed image enhancement and intelligent recognition algorithms. They can complete tasks such as underwater observation and evaluation of aquatic products, yield estimation, and inspection and testing of seabed cables and marine facilities, acting as the "scouts" under the sea. The "Octopus" series of underwater robots are positioned for underwater fishing operations. Equipped with underwater visual perception modules, high-power propulsion devices, multi-axis robotic arms, and integrated seafood harvesting baskets, they can achieve efficient batch harvesting of seafood underwater, acting as the "picking experts" on the seabed.

"Seagull" series observation robot(s)

"Octopus" series fishing robot(s)

Compared with traditional diver operations, the robots support long-term continuous underwater work, have flexible robotic arm grasping, and are equipped with handheld ground stations that lower the operational threshold, allowing ordinary workers to operate them easily. The two sets of products complement each other, taking into account the two core businesses of observation/inspection and fishing/harvesting, and can also be docked with unmanned surface vessels for collaborative operations, featuring strong system scalability. After the practical application of this equipment, it brought multiple industrial values. In the field of marine aquaculture, it helped marine ranching enterprises expand the area of bottom-sowing aquaculture. Through real-time underwater observation, it assisted enterprises in adjusting aquaculture plans, optimizing resource allocation, and improving the yield and quality of seafood. In the fishing operation link, the robots replaced divers and traditional trawlers, free from the constraints of severe weather and complex hydrological conditions. This not only protected the seabed ecological environment but also avoided the personal safety risks of diving operations, effectively reducing labor costs and helping marine aquaculture enterprises improve quality and efficiency.

Strengthening Comprehensive Maritime Response Capabilities: "Manyang Anyong" Builds a Solid Maritime Safety Barrier

Zhejiang Manyang Shipping Engineering Co., Ltd. mainly operates port and marine engineering, shipwreck and sunken object salvage, maritime distress rescue, marine ship oil spill cleanup services, offshore wind power installation, ship leasing, offshore heavy-lifting transportation, and shipping and unloading operations.

The "Manyang Anyong" is a twin-engine, twin-propeller, twin-rudder stern-engine firefighting vessel, with an overall length of 54.5 meters, a molded breadth of 18 meters, a molded depth of 4.5 meters, and a gross tonnage of 1,300. The vessel is equipped with multiple sets of operating winches and 2-ton Delta anchors, enabling four-anchor positioning operations. The stern is equipped with two fire monitors, supporting high-efficiency fire-extinguishing devices and foam extinguishing agents, capable of rapidly suppressing offshore fires. The maximum speed of the vessel reaches 10 knots, ensuring rapid arrival at the scene when an emergency occurs. At the same time, the vessel is equipped with a dedicated slop oil recovery tank and recovery device, completing the collection of oily wastewater simultaneously while handling the accident, balancing multiple tasks such as emergency rescue, anchor lifting operations, and marine pollution prevention.

The vessel made up for the shortcomings of maritime operations from three aspects: rescue efficiency, emergency reserves, and risk prevention and control. The high-efficiency fire-extinguishing system shortened the time to control the fire and improved the rescue success rate. The 10-knot speed strengthened the first-response capability for emergencies. The slop oil recovery function effectively reduced the risk of marine environmental pollution, implementing the disposal concept of "early rescue and small-scale extinguishing," curbing the expansion of accidents, and reducing casualties and property losses.

Wang Xinman, Chairman of Zhejiang Manyang Shipping Engineering Co., Ltd., stated: "The 'Manyang Anyong' became a key piece of equipment for maritime emergency response, balancing the dual mission of firefighting and rescue and marine ecological protection, and providing solid hardware support for offshore shipping safety, water emergency rescue, and marine pollution prevention and control."

Lightweight Intelligent Water Area Surveying: Suchi M Light Survey Unmanned Surface Vessel Reshapes Water Surveying Operation Modes

The ROVMAKER was established in 2016 and is a national high-tech enterprise dedicated to the research and development of industrial-grade underwater intelligent equipment. It has comprehensive strengths in production, research, and sales, and its products are exported overseas, making it a mainstay of domestic underwater intelligent enterprises. The company's core R&D team has been deeply engaged in the field of underwater robots and product design for decades. Its industrial-grade products are widely used in underwater security, water conservancy and hydropower monitoring, underwater pipeline inspection, underwater object search, search and rescue salvage, exploration, and fishing, playing an important role in professional fields such as scientific research and underwater terrain mapping.

ROVMAKER launched the Suchi M light survey unmanned surface vessel. With a lightweight body and intelligent surveying capabilities, it solved the pain points of cumbersome deployment and large manpower investment in traditional water area surveying, providing efficient domestic intelligent equipment for surveying rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and shallow offshore waters.

The biggest highlight of Suchi M is its extreme portability, allowing a single person to independently complete the entire workflow. The whole vessel weighs only 17.5kg, and its compact body can be directly stored in the trunk of an ordinary car without the need for large transport equipment. Field transitions, on-site deployment, and recovery can be handled by one person, greatly reducing the manpower and logistics pressure of field surveying. The hull is made of high-performance glass fiber reinforced composite material integrally formed, possessing anti-sinking, anti-capsizing, and waterproof protection capabilities. It is equipped with a flashing warning light to improve operational visibility, and the quick-release modular thruster facilitates the cleaning of aquatic plants and debris, making later maintenance simple and efficient, fully adapting to complex field water conditions. The unmanned vessel is equipped with a self-developed sonar detection system, with a depth measurement coverage of 0.3-50 meters, capable of directly reading raw sonar waveform data, ensuring the authenticity and effectiveness of surveying results from the source. Relying on high-precision RTK navigation and positioning, it achieved 1-centimeter level positioning accuracy in both horizontal and vertical directions, supporting autonomous path planning and automatic return, with the entire operation automated. It is equipped with a 360° self-stabilizing high-definition camera with a 143° ultra-large field of view, capable of outputting stable and clear real-scene images even in wind and waves.

Enterprise head Xiao Liqun stated: "Currently, surveying of small and medium-sized water areas generally faces problems such as complex on-site conditions, large field manpower investment, and prominent safety risks in water operations. The original intention of developing Suchi M was to pack high-precision surveying capabilities into a lightweight platform. We balanced portability and professional-grade surveying performance, breaking the transportation and deployment threshold of traditional equipment, making single-person efficient water surveying a reality. In the future, Changzhou Yisu will continue to iterate on software and hardware technologies, expand more industry-adapted scenarios, and provide cost-effective domestic intelligent water equipment for fields such as water conservancy and environmental protection, and waterway operation and maintenance."