In a groundbreaking feat of engineering, a Chinese research team has developed a palm-sized deep-sea robot capable of navigating the crushing pressures of the Mariana Trench—Earth’s deepest oceanic abyss at 10,666 meters. The 1.5-kilogram robot, designed by scientists from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA), the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Zhejiang University, has successfully performed swimming, gliding, and crawling motions in extreme conditions, marking the first time a submersible of this scale has achieved multimodal mobility at such depths.
Defying the “Pressure of a Small Iceberg”
The robot’s breakthrough lies in its flexible, bionic design, inspired by deep-sea creatures like batfish and snailfish. Traditional rigid submersibles, which weigh several tons, rely on bulky pressure-resistant hulls. In contrast, this robot employs a chiral bistable metamaterial structure that converts high pressure (up to 110 MPa, equivalent to “a one-ton rhinoceros standing on a fingernail”) into a performance enhancer. The material’s rapid “snap-through” motion between two stable states allows efficient propulsion even under extreme stress.
From Lab to the Abyss: Testing Beyond Limits
During a two-month expedition in late 2024, the robot was deployed 14 times across the Mariana Trench, the South China Sea’s “Haima Cold Seep” (1,384 meters), and the “Longxi Seamount” (3,756 meters). Remarkably, its swimming speed (33.7 mm/s) and crawling efficiency (21.5 mm/s) in the trench matched—and even surpassed—laboratory performance under normal conditions.
“The robot’s S-shaped undulation mimics biological locomotion, generating reverse Kármán vortices for propulsion. This biomimicry allows it to navigate complex terrains like soft sediments and rocky outcrops with minimal energy consumption.”
— Dr. Wen Li, Lead Scientist at BUAA
A New Era for Deep-Sea Exploration
The robot’s compact size and 100% domestically produced components—a response to global semiconductor export controls—signal a shift toward scalable, cost-effective deep-sea missions. Current applications include cable laying, mineral exploration, and ecological monitoring. Future iterations will integrate AI to enhance autonomy, enabling real-time decision-making for tasks like underwater archaeology or disaster response.
