Underwater robot competition raises tech limits

The Dalian competition is sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the city government of Dalian and Pengcheng Laboratory. This year, it attracted 20 teams with 110 members from domestic universities.

"It is the world's sole underwater intelligent robot competition held in a real offshore environment," said Luo Zhongxuan, vice-president of Dalian University of Technology, an organizer of the competition.

In recent years, the teams have been making progress in the areas of external design, intelligent algorithms integration and smart grasping. The record for intelligent underwater grasping operations has been constantly increasing, according to Luo.

Underwater robots are widely and urgently needed in areas such as sea ranching, subsea pipeline inspection and specialty operations.

Luo said the contest has become an exchange platform for supply and demand.