On February 19, the “Intelligent Agile Ocean Stereoscopic Observation Instrument”, a major research instrument development project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, chaired by Academician Chen Dake of the SIO, was launched in Zhuhai. Executive Deputy Director Yu Sheng, Deputy Director Zhang Chaolin from the Geoscience Department of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Xin Hongmei, Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources, and Fang Yinxia, Director of the SIO, attended the kick-off meeting.

This project is a national major scientific research instrument development project recommended by the Ministry of Natural Resources and approved by the National Natural Science Foundation of China in 2022. It is chaired by the SIO, and jointly developed by Sun Yat-sen University, Zhejiang University, the South China Sea Survey Center of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Guangdong Provincial Laboratory of South Marine Science and Engineering (Zhuhai) and Zhuhai Yunzhou Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd. Regarding the problems, for example, the existing ocean observation instruments and equipment cannot take into account intelligence, agility, environmental adaptability and task adaptability, and can hardly meet the urgent needs of scientific development for ocean observation, a set of “intelligent agile ocean three-dimensional observation instrument” is proposed in this project through the cross-domain collaborative networking of the air, sea and submarine unmanned platforms by taking the intelligent mother ship as the support carrier. The intelligent, fast, synchronous and three-dimensional observation of complex marine tasks is realized in this project by solving key technical problems such as task scheduling, collaborative control and networking communication of multi-platform cross-domain collaborative networking.

Experts and representatives attending the meeting also visited Smart Mother Ship “Zhu Hai Yun”, the important supporting platform of the project, and agreed that the project has a clear goal, the overall design scheme is reasonable, and the five-year development plan is feasible. They hoped that the successful development of the “intelligent agile ocean three-dimensional observation instrument” could provide a new ocean observation mode, and promote the development of marine science and technology and the construction of maritime power of China.