Undersea research activity in China

Abstract

To meet the needs of ocean exploitation, manned submersibles, ROV, untethered submersibles etc. have been developed in China since the early 70's. The first manned submersible had a length of 15 meters, 35 tons of displacement and the capability of diving to a depth of 600 meters and was successfully put into service in 1986. The first ROV was developed and reached a depth of 199 meters in an ocean experiment in 1986. In the meantime, a series of observing submersibles such as JH01, SJT-5, SJT-10, SJT-40 and atmospheric diving suits KZF-1 and QSZ-1 were developed and most of them have been used in diving experiments. From 1990 China Academy of Science and SJTU also developed the autonomous vehicle Explorer-1 and CR-01 etc. In 1995 the 6,000 meters deep tow survey system was co-developed by SJTU and DOE. The system completed the task successfully in 1998. The subsea pipeline and cable burying, inspection and maintenance technology is being developed by SJTU and ShengLi Oil Company.