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China and Russia have joined in upgrading the "benthal satellite" -- the deep sea carrier robot, which can operate at 7,000 meters below the surface and is expected to go into operation in 2005.
"This signifies that China will be able to probe complicated sea areas including deep trenches, and accelerate the pace of exploiting maritime resources," said Wang Tianran, head of the Shenyang Institute of Automation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
Russia, the United States and Japan are the only countries possessing similar submarine carrier robot technologies.
Wang noted that research on the submarine robot was on a par with that of carrier spacecraft. The major technical difficulties had all been solved, but life maintenance systems were the next step of research.
The robot, eight meters long by three meters wide, can carry three people -- one operator and two scientists.
A Russian technician participating in the project said that in the foreseeable future, a Chinese submarine carrier robot could probe the world's deepest sea trench -- the 10,000-meter Marianas Trench.
The deep sea robot is mainly for scientific research and seabed resources probing, which is a key task of China's high-technology plan in the 2001-2005 period.
China started to focus research on "the application of an intelligent robot in the sea" in the 1980s. China and Russia cooperated in developing the 6,000-meter submarine cableless robot in 1995. However, China still remained at the research stage of the 500 to 600-meter deep submarine carrier robot.
Research on the 7,000-meter deep sea robot, with a total investment of 180 million yuan (US$22.5 million), is shared by the China Shipbuilding Industrial Cooperation, the Shenyang Institute of Automation of the CAS, and the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The core technology of robot-making is undertaken by the Chinese side, while the technologies of life maintenance in the alloyed titanium pressure cabin are provided by the Russian side.
Key technologies on the submarine carrier robot include low water-percolating rate buoyancy materials which can endure high air pressure, in-water telecommunication means and life security systems.
China was approved by the United Nations in 1991 as the fifth pioneer investor in deep-sea mining, undertaking the task of probing 300,000 km2 of benthal area, and possessed the prior exploitation rights for the 75,000 km2 of sea areas with the most abundant mine resources.
The Chinese government has also taken sea exploitation as a strategic focus of economic development in the 21st century.
The world's first submarine robot was created in 1953. In the 1970s, submarine robot development entered its prime period, with flourishing offshore oil exploitation. There are about 1,000 robots in the world at present.
(Xinhua News Agency September 11, 2002)
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