Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s ocean engineering team recently completed the first batch of at-sea marine equipment trials at the Yazhou Bay nearshore test site in Sanya, comprehensively testing multiple types of marine equipment including ocean environment monitoring instruments, a seabed mining vehicle prototype and an unmanned surface vessel. The successful completion of the trials shows that construction of the Sanya Yazhou Bay nearshore test site is bearing results, as the site begins to offer at-sea trial capabilities including long-term monitoring of South China Sea dynamic conditions and real-time testing of intelligent marine equipment in operation.
During the sea trials, the team worked through rough sea conditions over multiple days and voyages to complete tasks including observation of South China Sea wind, wave and current dynamics, functional testing of intelligent marine equipment, precise underwater positioning and navigation, and monitoring of seabed environmental disturbance. Using the recently completed test platform, the team installed an environmental monitoring array of wave observation buoys, conductivity-temperature-depth sensors and turbidity meters, enabling long-term measurement of water depth, wind, waves, currents, water temperature, salinity and turbidity. The team deployed its independently developed seabed mining vehicle principle prototype at sea; using underwater acoustic positioning, the vehicle accurately located a simulated seabed polymetallic nodule field and used a newly developed suction-lift hydraulic collection method to gather simulated polymetallic nodule particles with high efficiency and low disturbance. A turbidity sensor carried on the mining vehicle, working with the test site’s environmental monitoring array, tracked the generation and evolution of seabed plumes throughout the operation. The team also deployed an unmanned surface vessel, testing its autonomous navigation in distant waters and rough conditions and using it for close-in, coordinated observation of the mining vehicle’s launch and recovery and of the test site’s boundary buoys. Throughout the trials, data and video from the offshore test area were transmitted in real time to the shore-based monitoring and control station, linking sea and shore.
The completed trials fully verified the site’s capability to conduct real-time observation of ocean dynamics and to test marine equipment across a three-dimensional trial area spanning the surface, the water column and the seabed, marking a solid step in the test site’s construction as it becomes an important offshore trial base in the South China Sea.
The ocean engineering team, working through Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Sanya Yazhou Bay Deep-Sea Science and Technology Institute, began planning and building the Yazhou Bay nearshore test site in 2019 and completed its offshore test platform and shore-based monitoring and control station in January 2025. The test site lies more than 20 kilometers off the Yazhou Bay coastline in Sanya, measuring 3,000 meters long by 1,000 meters wide with a sea area of 300 hectares. It can host at-sea trials of marine resource development equipment, marine renewable energy systems, ocean science instruments, marine testing equipment and other marine hardware, providing strong support for China’s ocean science research and marine equipment innovation.
