Haima
Haima (海马号), or sea horse, is China's first home-grown unmanned submersible which can dive a depth of 4,500 meters via remote control. The vehicle marks another step in China's drive to explore deep sea resources.
It took six years for Chinese scientists to develop core technologies of making the machine. The submersible has gone through multiple improvements following problems and malfunctions during tests in laboratory tanks and the ocean.
During tests, the vehicle achieved a maximum depth of 4,502 meters, and reached the central basin in the South China Sea for tasks such as deploying cables, collecting sedimentary rock samples and photographing.
Meanwhile, Qianlong-1, another unmanned submersible still in the trial stage, is designed to travel to a depth of 6,000 meters and will be tasked with exploring the seabed and collecting hydrological data.
In 2012, Jiaolong, the country's most advanced manned submersible, achieved a record dive depth of more than 7,000 meters in the Pacific's Mariana Trench.
