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8A4-class ROUV

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The 8A4 class ROUV is a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROUV), a Chinese ROUV used to perform various underwater tasks ranging from oil platform service to salvage and rescue missions. The 8A4 is a member of a series of related ROUVs developed by Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA) in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The predecessor to the 8A4 is the RECON-IV, which is an improved version of the American RECON-III. The 8A4 is an improved version of the American AMETEK 2006. The 7B8 is an improved version of the 8A4.[1]

Recon-IV

The origin of 8A4 traces back to the RECON-IV ROUV. Since the 1980s, China begun to operate ROUVs to support its offshore oil drill operations and salvage operations, such as Hysub 10 ROUVs and Hysub 40 ROUVs supplied by the Canadian firm International Submarine Engineering in British Columbia. Hysub 40 ROUVs was deployed by Shanghai Salvage Bureau and proved its worth not only in oil drilling operations, but also in salvage and rescue missions. However, these foreign built ROUVs were simply too expensive to be adopted in significant numbers, and the salvage operational needs of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) could not be met. As a result, China decided to develop its own version of ROUVs with similar capability.

One of the first ROUVs domestically built in China was the RECON-IV ROUV, which is based on the American RECON-III ROUV built by Perry Oceanographic (later purchased by Lockheed Martin) based in Riviera Beach, Florida.[2] Based on the technology transfer, the Shenyang Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Science and Perry Oceanographic jointly developed the RECON-IV ROUV,[2] which was adopted by People's Liberation Army Navy for salvage and rescue operations. However, like earlier ROUVs, the RECON-IV is primarily designed for civilian operations[2] and had its limitations in performing certain military operations, such as cutting through specialized steel used to build certain compartments of submarines that were stranded, and opening some valves on sinking vessels, thus a more capable follow-up was needed.

8A4

To develop a ROUV that meets the special needs of military salvage and rescue operations that was not commercially available on the market, China organized a design team in the late 1980s including the 702nd Research Institute of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), the Shipbuilding Engineering Institute of Harbin Engineering University (HEU), and the Institute of Underwater Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SHJTU), with a professor of SHJTU, Mr. Xu Huangnan (徐芑南), and the future deputy general designer of Explorer AUV, and the future general designer of other Chinese unmanned underwater vehicles including Sea Dragon class ROUV, CR class AUV, and SJT class ROUV, was named as the general designer of the 8A4 ROUV. The goal was to develop an ROUV primarily used for military applications, while also capable of performing civilian tasks as the secondary mission.

To shorten the time needed, the decision was made to develop an ROUV based on existing technology by first selecting a system available on the market with performance closest to the requirements, and then improving the commercially available system based on the experienced gained from the RECON-IV ROUV developed earlier. The AMETEK 2006, an American ROUV used to support offshore oil drilling operations, was selected because it was the one that met the requirements best, while also being the one China could purchase on the international market at the time. However, despite meeting Chinese requirements better than all of the rest available systems, it was far from getting close, so extensive improvements were needed. One of the major upgrades needed was the complete redesign and incorporation of two manipulators that were required to operate around half a dozen tools underwater.[3] These manipulators were completed by the main subcontractor, the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), and eventually won 1st Place in the Scientific and Technological Advancement Award of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation in 1996.

The first 8A4 ROUV completed sea trials in 1993 and subsequently entered service. During its evaluation, the 8A4 ROUV successfully opened a submarine compartment constructed of special steel, a feat no other ROUV in Chinese inventory could achieve, and the 8A4 was thus dubbed as the most capable salvage and rescue ROUV in Chinese service. The 8A4 is capable of operating at a depth of up to 600 meters, with a cruising radius of up to 150 meters, and it was one of the first ROUVs in Chinese inventory to incorporate a Tether Management System (TMS). In 1996, the 8A4 ROUV won 3rd Place in the Scientific and Technological Advancement Award of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation. Despite the success and awards received, the 8A4 class ROUV is severely limited in its capability during actual deployment due to financial constraints. With the exception of the very first unit, all of the remaining 8A4 ROUVs have their TMS deleted due to the budget cuts, resulting in significant reduction in performance. For example, the maximum operational depth is reduced by more than half. It is not until the early 2010s during the scheduled overhaul would the TMS be planned to be reintroduced to all the 8A4 ROUVs to achieve their full capability.

Dragon Pearl

Dragon Pearl (Long-Zhu, 龙珠)ROUV is a very little known micro-ROUV designed specifically to work with Jiaolong, operated by Jiaolong crew.[4][5][6][7][8][9] Therefore, the maximum operating depth of Dragon Pearl is equivalent to that of Jiaolong. Specification:[4][5][6]

  • Dimension: < 0.4 meter x 0.4 meter x 0.4 meter
  • Weight: 40 kg
  • Maximum operating depth: > 7000 meter

Sea Crab

Not to be confused with JUST unmanned vehicles § Sea Crab ROUV.

Sea Crab (Hai-Xie, 海蟹 in Chinese) ROUV is an experimental ROUV developed from experience gained from earlier ROUVs. Sea Crab is different than all previous ROUVs in that it is not propelled by propellers, but instead, it is designed with six legs to walk on the sea floor as a bottom crawler.[10][11] Sea Crab was completed in 1984[10] and served mainly as a proof of concept unit, which lead to the development of later bottom crawler such as Sea Star described below.

Sea Pole

Not to be confused with Sea Pole-class bathyscaphe.

Sea Pole (Hai-Ji, 海极) ROUV is a very little known remotely operated vehicle (ROV) developed from 8A4, specifically designed for underwater exploration in polar regions, and it has been successfully deployed since the second Chinese Arctic expedition in 2003.[12][13][14][15][16][17]

Sea Star

Based on experience gained from earlier Sea Crab bottom crawler, SIA jointly developed Sea Star (Hai-Xing, 海星) ROUV with Italian firm Sonsub.[11][18][19] Equipped with two manipulators, Sea Star is a bottom crawlerspecifically designed for laying underwater cables on the seabed.[10][11][18][20][19] Specification:[11][19]

  • Weight: < 10 ton
  • Maximum operationg depth: 300 meter
  • Maximum escavation depth: 1.5 meter
  • Maximum cable laying speed: 500 meters per hour

Sea Star 6000

Although grouped in the same family of sea star by the same developer SIA, and both ROUVs share many common technologies, Sea Star 6000 is vastly different than original Sea Star bottom crawler, because it is a ROUV designed to operate to a maximum depth of 6000 meters for scientific research missions.[21][22][23][24][25] Specification:[21]

  • Length: 2.9 meter
  • Width: 2.1 meter
  • Height: 2.6 meter
  • Weight: 3.5 ton
  • Power: 35 kW
  • Maximum operating depth: 6000 meter
  • Depth positioning accuracy: ± 2 meter
  • Directional positioning accuracy: ± 2°

References

  1. ^ 8A4 ROUV (in Chinese)
  2. ^ a b c Xu Guangrong (April 1, 2016). Biographies of Academicians of Chinese Academy of Science, Biography of Jiang Xinsong (in Simplified Chinese). Beijing: Beijing Book Co. Inc. p. 439. ISBN 9787516509999.
  3. ^ "Manipulators of the 8A4 ROUV (in Chinese)". Archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
  4. ^ a b "Dragon Pearl remotely operated vehicle" (in Simplified Chinese). July 2, 2014.
  5. ^ a b "Dragon Pearl remotely operated underwater vehicle" (in Simplified Chinese). July 10, 2014.
  6. ^ a b "Dragon Pearl unmanned underwater vehicle" (in Simplified Chinese). July 10, 2014.
  7. ^ "Dragon Pearl ROUV" (in Simplified Chinese). June 26, 2014.
  8. ^ "Dragon Pearl ROV" (in Simplified Chinese). August 14, 2014.
  9. ^ "Dragon Pearl UUV" (in Simplified Chinese). August 21, 2014.
  10. ^ a b c "Sea Crab remotely operated underwater vehicle" (PDF) (in Simplified Chinese). December 31, 2000.
  11. ^ a b c d "Sea Star remotely operated vehicle" (in Simplified Chinese). October 18, 2021.
  12. ^ "Sea Pole remotely operated vehicle" (in Simplified Chinese). September 26, 2018.
  13. ^ "Sea Pole remotely operated underwater vehicle" (in Simplified Chinese). June 29, 2009.
  14. ^ "Sea Pole unmanned underwater vehicle" (in Simplified Chinese). October 13, 2021.
  15. ^ "Sea Pole ROV" (in Simplified Chinese). October 25, 2021.
  16. ^ "Sea Pole ROUV" (in Simplified Chinese). October 25, 2021.
  17. ^ "Sea Pole UUV" (in Simplified Chinese). February 8, 2022.
  18. ^ a b "Sea Star remotely operated underwater vehicle" (in Simplified Chinese). October 26, 2018.
  19. ^ a b c He Yuqing & han Jianda (August 1, 2016). Theories and Practice of Robotics Technological Development Route (in Simplified Chinese). Beijing: Beijing Book Co. Inc. p. 148. ISBN 9787538198232.
  20. ^ "Sea Star unmanned underwater vehicle" (in Simplified Chinese). July 15, 2013.
  21. ^ a b "Sea Star 6000 remotely operated vehicle" (in Simplified Chinese). March 13, 2018.
  22. ^ "Sea Star 6000 remotely operated underwater vehicle" (in Simplified Chinese). October 29, 2018.
  23. ^ "Sea Star 6000 unmanned underwater vehicle" (in Simplified Chinese). October 30, 2018.
  24. ^ "Sea Star 6000 ROUV" (in Simplified Chinese). October 29, 2018.
  25. ^ "Sea Star 6000 UUV" (in Simplified Chinese). October 29, 2018.
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