The Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) recently completed endurance trials of a prototype autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) designed for environmental survey work.
During the trials, the three-metre, 200-kilogram Haijing 2000 ("Sea Whale 2000") covered a total distance of 1,086 nautical miles, which the SIA claims is a new national record.
The institute has also been testing the AUV's suite of sensors for measuring water temperature and salinity, current flows, and trace chemical content.
The trials were carried out in the South China Sea over a 37-day period.
