This article is selected from the journal of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, China Engineering Science, No. 2, 2024
Authors: Gong Yongjun, Sun Yuqing, Li Huajun, Dong Chuanming, Zhang Zengmeng
Source:Research on the development of maritime search and rescue and salvage equipment[J].Strategic Study of Chinese Academy of Engineering,2024,26(2):50-62.)
Editor's note
In recent years, global climate change has been abnormal, extreme natural disasters have occurred frequently, resulting in frequent major incidents, and the safety of maritime personnel, property safety and environmental protection are facing huge challenges. After years of continuous development, the mainland's search and rescue and salvage equipment has been continuously strengthened and improved, and its ability to respond to maritime emergencies has been significantly improved, but there is still a certain gap between the mainland's search and rescue and salvage capabilities and those of European and American powers, and it is necessary to further improve the search and rescue and salvage equipment and improve the comprehensive rescue and salvage capabilities.
The research team of Li Huajun, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, published an article entitled "Research on the Development of Maritime Search and Rescue Salvage Equipment" in the second issue of the journal of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, China Engineering Science in 2024. This paper introduces that search, rescue and salvage is the last line of defense for maritime safety, which provides a reliable guarantee for the construction of the national comprehensive transportation system and the sustainable development of the marine economy. Search and rescue salvage equipment is an important support for fulfilling public welfare responsibilities such as marine personnel safety, environmental safety, property rescue, emergency rescue and salvage, and ensuring the safety of the national maritime logistics supply chain. This paper comprehensively reviews the development status of foreign maritime search and rescue equipment, as well as the development and application progress of mainland maritime search and rescue equipment, from four aspects: target search and positioning and detection equipment, marine life rescue equipment, marine environmental rescue equipment, and special equipment for salvage engineering. Compared with developed countries, the development of maritime search and rescue and salvage equipment on the mainland has some problems, such as backward search and positioning equipment, weak ability to rescue lives at sea, low disposal capacity of hazardous chemicals, and weak salvage capacity of large-tonnage sunken ships. On the basis of further identifying the development frontier of maritime search and rescue and salvage equipment, some suggestions are put forward, such as increasing investment in research and development of key equipment, promoting the upgrading and iteration of search and rescue and salvage equipment, strengthening scientific and technological innovation capabilities to improve the intelligent level of equipment, deploying key projects of search and rescue and salvage technology and equipment, and providing corresponding industrial policy support, in order to promote the high-quality development of maritime search and rescue and salvage equipment in the mainland.
I. Preface
Marine transportation is a strategic basic industry in the lifeblood of the mainland's economy and occupies an absolute dominant position in foreign trade transportation. In 2022, more than 90% of the mainland's foreign trade in goods was completed by sea, of which more than 95% of the imported crude oil was transported by sea, and 99% of the transportation channels of ore imports were transported by sea. With the implementation of the strategy of maritime power, the mainland's offshore oil and gas resources development, seafood fishing, marine engineering, marine aquaculture and other sea-related activities are becoming more and more frequent. As the number and density of ships and personnel at sea increases, the probability of accidents and dangers increases. The volume of dangerous goods transported by sea is increasing, the navigation environment of ships is becoming more and more complex, and the daily average of various dangerous goods transport ships sailing in the mainland waters reaches more than 1,000 times, and the risk of major oil spills and chemical pollution caused by marine traffic accidents is also on the rise. In recent years, global climate change has been abnormal, extreme natural disasters have occurred frequently, and severe weather and sea conditions have led to frequent major events. As an important part of the strategy of maritime power, marine transportation and marine engineering are facing huge challenges in terms of maritime personnel safety, property safety and environmental protection.
As the last line of defense for maritime security, search, rescue and salvage escorts the safety of the lives and property of maritime activities and provides a reliable guarantee for the sustainable development of the mainland's marine economy. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the Rescue and Salvage Bureau of the Ministry of Transport dispatched a total of 4,411 salvage forces; 1,760 special emergency rescue and rescue tasks were carried out; 26,230 people in distress were successfully rescued, an increase of 142.3% compared with the "13th Five-Year Plan" period (10,827 people in distress); 2,849 ships in distress were rescued, an increase of 357.3% compared with the "13th Five-Year Plan" period (623 ships in distress were rescued); successfully salvaged 85 shipwrecks; The value of the rescued property amounted to 17.99 billion yuan. As the main force to ensure maritime safety, search and rescue forces play an important role in escorting.
Search and rescue salvage equipment is an important support for fulfilling public welfare responsibilities such as marine personnel safety, environment, property rescue and emergency rescue and salvage, and ensuring the safety of the national maritime logistics supply chain. According to the function, maritime search and rescue salvage equipment can be divided into four categories: target search, positioning and detection, marine personnel rescue, marine environmental rescue, and special equipment for salvage engineering. The target search, positioning and detection equipment includes satellites, engineering radars, infrared, visible light, sonar, etc., and the assembled carriers include ships, aircraft, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), unmanned remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), etc. The rescue of people at sea mainly includes the search and rescue of people who have fallen into the water, the rescue of capsized boats, and the rescue of people in large-scale distress. Marine environmental rescue equipment mainly includes the recovery and cleaning of oil spills on the sea surface and the emergency disposal equipment of submarine shipwrecks or oil and gas facilities. The special equipment for salvage engineering involves a large number of special electromechanical and hydraulic equipment, including tapping jacks, underwater desilting and unloading, underwater oil pumping, underwater welding, working tools, wreck floating and other equipment.
After years of continuous development, the mainland's search and rescue equipment has been continuously strengthened and improved, and its ability to respond to maritime emergencies has been significantly improved. However, there is still a big gap between the mainland's search and rescue and salvage capabilities, such as ships, aircraft, and salvage equipment, compared with those of the European and American powers. Search and rescue salvage equipment is an important support for the completion of maritime emergency rescue and rescue salvage, and it is also one of the core tasks to promote the construction of maritime search and rescue and salvage capacity. Effectively promoting the high-quality development of search and rescue and salvage technology and equipment is the fundamental way to improve the comprehensive capacity of rescue and salvage, and it is also an important part of the implementation of the national strategy of becoming a transportation power and a maritime power. Therefore, this paper analyzes the maritime search and rescue and salvage equipment at home and abroad, and puts forward corresponding development suggestions for the problems existing in the development of mainland search and rescue and salvage equipment, in order to provide reference for the improvement of the mainland's maritime search and rescue and salvage capabilities.
2. The development status of foreign maritime search and rescue and salvage equipment
(1) Development status of target search, positioning and detection equipment1. Maritime search and positioning technology and equipment
As an important development direction of satellite technology, space-based marine target surveillance has become an important means of marine target surveillance. Space-based ocean surveillance satellites mainly include Automatic Identification System (AIS) satellites, commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites and commercial optical remote sensing satellites. The space-based ocean target surveillance system is an important equipment to enhance the global ocean perception capability, and the representative systems include high-resolution SAR satellite constellations such as the European Space Agency Sentinel, Italy's COSMO-SkyMed, and Canada's RadarSat, as well as AIS small satellite constellations such as Germany's Rubin, Canada's exact-View, and the United States' VesselSat and Aprize-Sat. The development of space-based satellite technology has significantly improved the wide-area coverage and rapid response capability of marine target surveillance. In order to meet the needs of real-time and refined detection and identification of marine targets, the world's major maritime powers have paid more and more attention to the research of space-based marine target surveillance information fusion and processing technology, and have successively established marine target surveillance systems based on multi-source satellite information fusion, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Foreign multi-source satellite information fusion ocean surveillance system
Note: LRIT is a long-range identification and tracking system for ships; MTI is a moving target display system; ISAR stands for Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar
The Global Positioning System (GPS) of the United States is the world's first global system established and used for navigation and positioning, and it is also the most advanced and widely used shipborne positioning terminal equipment. At present, the GPS ground control system has added the monitoring of new navigation signals and the management and control of new features. In addition, Russia's GLONASS and Europe's Galileo, as a gradually developed global satellite navigation system, also have a certain share of their shipboard equipment.
2. Aerial search technology and equipment
Air search and rescue mainly rely on fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles. Countries such as the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Australia have relatively strong air search capabilities.
The U.S. Coast Guard, as the main force of maritime search and rescue efforts, has the most advanced air rescue technology and equipment. In 2019, the United States had 26 aviation bases, 146 helix-wing helicopters and 55 fixed-wing aircraft, capable of completing short-range, medium-range and long-range maritime rescue missions. Currently, Japan also has 14 aviation bases, 33 fixed-wing aircraft and 52 propeller-wing helicopters.
Most of the British air search and rescue helicopters are large aircraft, with a search and rescue radius of 150~200 n miles (1 n miles=1.852 km), and all coastal waters of the United Kingdom can be completely covered by 12 large helicopters. At present, Australia has 25 fixed-wing bases and more than 70 helicopter bases, and has the strongest maritime search and rescue capabilities in the southern hemisphere, covering the South Pacific, the Indian Ocean and Antarctica.
Due to the characteristics of fast flight speed and strong maneuverability, UAVs can approach or arrive at dangerous accident areas that are not suitable for humans to carry out search and rescue, and can quickly and accurately locate distress targets and transmit video images in real time, reducing the danger of search and rescue personnel. The U.S. Coast Guard has used drones such as Hawkeye, MQ-9B shore-based, Global Hawk, Fire Scout, and Scan Eagle for maritime search and rescue operations. The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) uses drones to carry out activities such as maritime surveillance of fisheries, vessel surveillance and reconnaissance, and border patrols. In 2022, the RQ-4B Global Hawk high-altitude long-endurance UAV introduced by Japan is equipped with reconnaissance equipment such as optoelectronics, radar and electronic monitoring, which can greatly enhance long-range continuous surveillance capabilities.
In the process of sea surface search, aircraft need to use electro-optical imaging or synthetic aperture radar equipment to conduct sea surface search. In terms of airborne photoelectric search systems, foreign research technologies have been relatively mature, such as the infrared search systems developed by the United States, Israel and other countries have been successfully applied to maritime search and rescue missions, and have shown good search capabilities.
3. Underwater search technology and equipment
The underwater search platform is the carrier of search equipment, which undertakes the search for wrecked targets, salvage of wreckage and personnel search and rescue tasks, and the common platforms include ships, ships, unmanned ships and underwater robots. The AUVs that can be used for deep-sea exploration operations at large depths mainly include the REMUS 6000 of Hydroid, the HUGINAUV of Norway, the Bluefin AUV of the United States, and the Explorer-class AUV of ISE of Canada. The REMUS 6000 autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle, the largest operating AUV, was involved in the deep-sea search and detection of the Air France AF 447 Atlantic wrecked aircraft. The Bluefin AUV includes several series of products such as Bluefin-9, Bluefin-12, Bluefin-21, Bluefin-21 BPAUV, among which Bluefin-21 has participated in the underwater search of Malaysia Airlines MH370 aircraft.
Underwater search equipment includes forward-looking sonar detection equipment, bathymetric side-scan sonar detection equipment, underwater acoustic beacon search and positioning equipment, underwater high-definition optical observation equipment and magnetic detection equipment. The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Norway, Denmark and other countries have been equipped with many mature underwater search equipment, among which Denmark's Blue View and Teledyne Reson, Britain's Tritech, Norway's Kongsberg Maritime and Norbit Subsea, and the United States' Far Sounder have a relatively complete range of underwater search and rescue equipment. The SeaBat 7125 multibeam system sounder, from the Danish company Reson, has a maximum operating depth of 6000 m and has been involved in the underwater search for the black box of the Malaysia Airlines MH 370 aircraft.
As the depth of the underwater dive deepens and the operation time increases, the diver's operation efficiency will continue to decrease. In order to adapt to complex underwater rescue missions, the development of saturation diving technology has greatly improved the efficiency of diving operations. As early as 1962, in order to improve the ability of deep-sea diving operations, the United States and other developed countries with diving technology carried out a series of experiments, and carried out research on increasing the diving depth and extending the effective diving time. In 1981, the United States completed a simulation experiment of "ATLANTIS III.", which dived to a maximum depth of 686 m, and the diving operators worked at a depth greater than 650 m for 7 days and nights. In 1992, COMEX conducted a simulated saturation dive experiment of human hydrogen-helium-oxygen mixture named "HYDRA\u201210", and the depth of the dive reached 701 m. In 2008, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force also completed 440 m saturation and 450 m roving diving, with divers cruising to a depth of 450 m. At present, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, Japan and Russia have all exceeded the diving depth of 400 m.
(2) Development status of marine personnel rescue equipment 1. Capsized ship rescue equipment
Rescue of capsized boat is a very complex and difficult job, and there are usually two ways to rescue it: one is to send professional divers to wear equipment for underwater rescue, and the other is to use equipment to make a hole in the bottom of the capsized boat for rescue. Developed countries in Europe and the United States have advanced rescue technologies for capsized boats, including the use of large lifting equipment (see Figure 1), professional rescue vessels, divers carrying professional diving equipment, and new rescue equipment for capsized boats. In response to the issue of stabilizing capsized ships, the Norwegian Petroleum Authority has developed the Pocket Stabilization System, which provides stability support in the event of a capsized ship so that rescuers and equipment can access the capsized ship. In terms of the rescue of the bottom opening of the capping ship, the ship cutting and dismantling equipment produced by AMT International Inc. in the United States can be used for the bottom opening operation of the capping ship.
Fig.1 The large lifting equipment fixes the capping boat
2. Rescue equipment for people who have fallen into the water
In terms of rescue of people who have fallen into the water, after years of technological development, improvement and upgrading, foreign surface life-saving equipment can carry out search and rescue tasks for individual people in the water under various sea conditions to ensure the safety of the lives of drowning people. Marine Advanced Robotics of the United States combines the advantages of catamarans with suspension to develop wave-adapted modular ships, which increase the stability of the ship and reduce the additional load at the joint. The U-Safe lifebuoy with sailing ability designed by Noras Performance in Portugal has changed the shape of the traditional lifebuoy to a "U" shape, and is equipped with a pair of electric propeller propellers at the tail, which can be remotely controlled to the person to be rescued during the rescue process, but compared with the rescue boat, its wind and wave resistance is poor, and the power and speed are limited.
3. Large-scale personnel rescue equipment at sea
In recent years, the development of large-scale personnel rescue equipment at sea has been continuously improving and innovating to improve rescue efficiency and reduce potential risks. Norsafe Lifeboat Manufacturing Co., Ltd. produces automatic lifeboats with high-tech systems that can be quickly deployed and launched by remote control and automation. The Surviva automated lifeboat system, developed by the British company RFD Lifesaving Equipment Manufacturing, can accurately calculate wide wave, high wave and ship attitude, thus ensuring that the lifeboat can be safely deployed in the harshest conditions.
Life-saving drones are also an important technology for large-scale maritime rescue, providing fast and accurate rescue support in emergency situations. The Splash Drone 3, a life-saving drone developed by SwellPro Aircraft Manufacturing Company in Australia, has a waterproof design and a buoyancy module that can float on the water and carry out rescue missions. The United States has developed the Hydrone RCV, a life-saving drone that combines underwater and aviation technology, and in addition to having flight functions, the drone can also float on the surface of the water and dive into the water to perform tasks.
4. Large-tonnage ships are difficult to get out of shallow
Due to the large amount of equipment and complex working conditions, the shallowness of large-tonnage ships is a problem of ship rescue and disposal. Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has developed a multi-objective cooperative control method, which uses multiple tugboats to connect the bow and stern of the shipwrecked ship respectively to control the tugboat system in a congested water traffic environment. This method can effectively coordinate multiple tugboats to achieve safe, smooth and fast transportation of ships. The Laboratory of Underwater Systems and Technologies at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, has developed a cooperative autonomous robotic towing system (CART) and proposed a new concept for salvage operations for ships in distress at sea. The CART system automates the high-risk operation of connecting a ship's emergency towing system to a towing vessel in distress.
(3) The development status of marine environmental rescue equipment
All countries in the world have generally attached great importance to the development of environmental rescue equipment for marine accidents. In the process of salvage the wreck of the oil tanker "Prestige", the Spanish company Repsol successfully completed the recovery operation of 1.37×104 tons of fuel oil at a water depth of nearly 4000 m by using new technologies and equipment such as the high-depth ROV 150 horsepower operation class "Innovator" through cooperation with Sonsub of the United States. The first task of emergency response to deepwater leaks is to locate and locate the leak point as soon as possible. Sonardyne in the UK, Kongsberg in Norway and iXblue in France are the leading companies in the world in locating leaks, mainly using long baseline acoustic location technology.
The challenge of underwater leakage is microleak location. The PLK underwater pipeline leakage monitoring system of CTG in the United Kingdom uses the fluorescent agent method to realize the monitoring of oil well micro-leakage in the Gulf of Mexico. Deep-water leakage detection usually uses 2D optics-based camera detection technology, and underwater laser scanning technology has been applied in related products of 2G Robotic and Voyis in Canada. The emergency response to deep-water underwater leakage accidents is mainly to achieve pressure plugging, and the American Tide Water Company (TDW) and the British STATS Group have developed typical pluggers Smart Plug and Tecno Plug to solve the problem of underwater sealing and pressure bearing of pipelines. Table 2 shows the main institutions and equipment engaged in the research of underwater leakage emergency response technology and equipment.
When the ship is grounded or sunk and other accidents, the risk of oil spill will increase significantly, and it is an effective measure to reduce the harm of oil spill accidents by pumping out the fuel oil or cargo oil of the accident ship in a timely and efficient manner and transferring it to the safe ship. Limited by the depth and intensity of divers' operations, Norway's FRAMO and Finland's LAMOR have developed a highly automated shipwreck oil recovery system. The underwater sinking oil pumping operation equipment developed by SLICKBAR in the United States has a working depth of less than 60 m and a pumping capacity of more than 500 m3/h. Many developed countries have also applied ROV technology to the disposal of oil spills from wrecks, and have developed systems and equipment for the disposal of deep-water wrecks based on ROV. In 2015, the Norwegian company Miko Marine developed a device for underwater oil pumping using ROV, which has the characteristics of small size, light weight and easy deployment, and its operating water depth can reach 300 m.
Table 2 The main institutions and equipment engaged in the research of underwater leakage emergency response technology and equipment
(4) Special equipment for salvage projects
1. Large-tonnage floating lifting technology and equipment
In the face of the demand for salvage of large-tonnage shipwrecks, developed countries such as Europe and the United States have made earlier engineering attempts. In 1974, the United States for the first time used large-scale hydraulic mechanical claw-type shipwreck overall salvage equipment, passive heave compensation and deep-sea exploration technology to salvage the former Soviet G-class II nuclear submarine K-129 sunk at a depth of 5,000 m in the Pacific Ocean. In the process of lifting and floating of large-tonnage wrecks, heave compensation devices are used to reduce the influence of engineering ships with wave movement. In October 2001, Russia and the Dutch Mammoet Salvage Company carried out the overall salvage of the submarine "Kursk", which sank to a depth of 108 m and had an overall mass of up to 9,500 t. The large barge carrying out the salvage is equipped with 26 sets of passive heave compensators and hydraulic synchronous lifting devices, which tow 26 cables to the submarine hull, as shown in Figure 2.
Fig.2 Schematic diagram of the floating process of the submarine "Kursk".
2. Shipwreck desilting and unloading equipment
Shipwrecks and special target salvage projects generally require desilting operations. The main goal of desilting is to clean up the sediment around and inside the wreck for further examination and analysis of the hull. In recent years, many new types of underwater robotic technologies have been used to improve the efficiency of desilting. Suction dredgers are generally used in desilting operations, and the special suction equipment developed by Smit Salvage in the Netherlands can quickly suck the sediment out of the wreck, which greatly improves the salvage efficiency. Wrecks loaded with a large number of goods need to be unloaded in advance before salvage to reduce the salvage load and improve the safety factor of the salvage process. A research team at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom has conducted research on methods for the conservation of artefacts in harsh marine environments, not only considering the high-precision extraction of shipwreck cargo, but also the effective preservation and protection of objects in the underwater environment.
3. Salvage special boats
In maritime rescue activities, rescue ships can complete rescue tasks such as water communications, transportation, patrol, reconnaissance, and life-saving, and are indispensable and important roles. The U.S. Coast Guard is equipped with a total of 2,035 search and rescue vessels such as patrol boats, icebreakers, patrol boats, and training sailboats, and its search and rescue vessels are basically standardized vessels, which are conducive to operation, training, inspection, maintenance and management. Japan has more than 700 rescue vessels, including patrol boats, firefighting boats, special security rescue ships, and training ships. The Canadian Coast Guard has a total of about 200 professional rescue vessels, mainly including icebreakers, lifeboats, environmental survey vessels, hovercraft, patrol ships, etc. The Royal Coast Guard has 4 emergency tugboats and the Royal Lifeboat Association has 130 all-weather working lifeboats and 170 inshore lifeboats.
Saturation diving support vessels are important technical equipment for carrying out large-depth diving operations. The United States, France, Norway and other European and American countries attach great importance to promoting the research of deep diving operation support vessels, and have developed a number of advanced design and powerful deep diving operation support vessels, which have the ability to operate underwater at a depth of 400~500 m. Among them, the Norwegian Subsea 7 series deep diving operation support vessel "Seven Atlantic" is the world's most advanced diving support vessel, which adopts the integrated design of diving system and hull, with a total length of 145 m, a width of 26 m, and is equipped with a 350 m saturation diving system.
3. Progress in the development and application of maritime search and rescue and salvage equipment on the mainland
(1) Target search, positioning and detection equipment1. Water search and positioning technology and equipment
In the military aspect, the mainland's first-generation marine target surveillance satellite system has been completed, and it initially has the ability to monitor large-scale ocean moving targets around the world. In terms of civilian use, the mainland has deployed civil remote sensing satellites such as "Ocean", "Gaofen", "Environment" and "Resources", as well as commercial remote sensing satellites such as "Tiantuo-1" AIS small satellite, "Zhuhai-1", "Jilin-1" and "Tiantuo-2". The development of continental space-based satellite systems has significantly improved the rapid response ability and spatiotemporal coverage capability of marine target surveillance, but it is rarely used in the field of civilian salvage.
The rescue and salvage bureau of the Ministry of Transport has established a salvage network and special line link within the system, which can be used for video conferencing, on-site image transmission, core business system access and other functions. Inmarsat C, F, FB, VSAT shipborne equipment, VHF and AIS slipways have been installed on the professional salvage vessels, and have been deployed on salvage ships with a shipboard LAN of more than 1940 kW. The professional salvage ship is equipped with AIS shipborne terminal equipment, which can monitor the position of the salvage operation ship through the AIS ship dynamic monitoring terminal. In addition, in November 2023, Qinhuangdao Haisheng Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. designed and developed the shipborne "Multi-functional Integrated System Based on Beidou Technology" (MIBT), which improves the ship's positioning, navigation and search capabilities.
2. Aerial search technology and equipment
At present, the mainland has 3 rescue bureaus, 5 rescue flight teams, 8 rescue flight bases, and a total of 24 helicopters of various types, including 20 large and medium-sized rescue helicopters and 4 Capri G2 small training helicopters. In addition, 6 AW189 super-medium salvage helicopters and 2 H175 large salvage helicopters will soon be commissioned. In terms of search equipment, because the mainland search and rescue aircraft are mainly imported, and the advanced search equipment is subject to foreign import and export control, only a few helicopters are equipped with search equipment, and their detection performance is poor, which is far from meeting the needs of maritime search and rescue applications, and there is an urgent need to develop technical equipment such as photoelectric imaging and synthetic aperture suitable for maritime search.
In terms of UAVs, the maritime cruise supervision application technology based on small multi-rotor UAVs and composite wing UAVs has been relatively mature. Yangzhou, Zhangjiagang and other maritime departments have successively used "DJI Latitude 300" and other multi-rotor UAVs and composite wing UAVs to carry out maritime supervision operations such as daily maritime patrols, evidence collection of illegal acts, and ship exhaust gas monitoring. However, UAV search technology and equipment for deep sea areas are still in their infancy, especially for long-endurance, harsh marine environment, long-distance communication transmission, target search equipment, intelligent target detection and other technical problems still need to be tackled.
3. Underwater search and positioning technology and equipment
In the 90s of the 20th century, the mainland began to develop the AUV system platform, and after more than 30 years of unremitting efforts, it has successfully developed a series of AUV equipment products, and has made breakthroughs in technical indicators such as long range and large depth. The Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed the "Exploration" series AUV and the "Qianlong Dragon" series of deep-sea AUVs respectively to meet the needs of marine scientific research and deep-sea resource survey, among which the "Exploration" series is mainly used for marine scientific research and the "Qianlong series" series is mainly used for deep-sea resource exploration. In addition, Harbin Engineering University has developed a 1,000-meter-class AUV "Zhishui-IV", and Tianjin University has developed a 2,000-meter-class seabed survey AUV.
China has also achieved certain results in underwater sonar and underwater cameras. The Institute of Acoustics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a high-resolution bathymetric side-scan sonar, which can obtain seabed topography and geomorphological information at the same time, with a bathymetric coverage of 500 m on both sides, a side-scan sonar coverage of 800 m on both sides, a horizontal beam opening angle of 1.5°, and a vertical track resolution of 5 cm. The underwater vehicle developed by the research team of Harbin Engineering University can realize the integrated search of signal detection, orientation, ranging and target imaging of the wrecked target black box by carrying out multi-beam sounding system, side-scan sonar and other sensors, stereo array receiving transducer and vector hydrophone.
In recent years, the development of saturation diving technology in the mainland has effectively improved the ability of deep-water operations. In 2006, the diving depth of the continental saturation diving technology was 103.5 m, achieving a breakthrough of zero saturation diving. In 2014, it dived to a depth of 313.5 m. In June 2021, the mainland completed the land-based manned experiment of 500 m saturation diving, marking that the mainland has entered the world's advanced ranks in the field of manned diving, and has independently mastered the core technology of large-depth saturation diving. At present, the mainland salvage system has one 300 m saturation diving operation mother ship and one 500 m new deep diving work ship under construction, which is equipped with various saturation diving systems and equipment, including supply tube diving equipment, anti-pollution diving equipment, portable medical pressurized cabin, diving air supply equipment, self-carried diving equipment and other support equipment. The mainland has built or is building a number of deep-diving operation support vessels, but still relies on foreign technology in terms of saturation diving operation system configuration and independent research and development of high-end deep-diving operation support vessels.
(2) Rescue equipment for personnel at sea1. Capsized ship rescue equipment
In view of the problem of the trapped people inside the capsized ship escaping from the bottom of the ship to the outside of the hull by themselves, some progress has also been made in the rescue equipment of the capsized ship in China. The Beihai Rescue Bureau of the Ministry of Transport has developed a kind of rapid opening equipment for the rescue of capsized boats, which is fixed on the ship board by using a magnetic seat and opening a hole by using a high-speed rotating cutter, which realizes the function of opening a hole in the bottom of the ship. For the rescue of the steel capping ship without an escape system, the research team of Wuhan University of Technology designed an open-hole airtight cabin of an inverted ship, which enables the trapped personnel to escape from the capping ship while preventing the gas escape from the cabin by opening the inner and outer hatches alternately. In addition, the research team of Dalian Maritime University has designed a device that can realize the functions of seal detection and supply under the premise of ensuring the equilibrium state of the capsized ship, thereby improving the rescue efficiency of the trapped people of the capsized ship.
2. Rescue equipment for people who have fallen into the water
At present, China attaches great importance to the research and development of related technologies of life-saving equipment on the water, rope throwers, life-saving nets, unmanned boats and other rescue equipment can rescue people in the water to safe places such as helicopters or rescue boats, and improve the probability of survival of people in the water. In order to reliably rescue people who have fallen into the water in a special environment, the researchers have carried out the research and development of a remote control surface rescue robot, which is easy to control, can adapt to navigation in windy and rough weather, and has good maneuverability. The M75 unmanned surface rescue boat developed by China Yunzhou Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. has search, communication and rescue modules
3. Large-scale life-saving equipment at sea
In recent years, the mainland's large-scale life-saving equipment at sea has been significantly improved. The CS Rescue 8000 is an 8-meter lifeboat developed by Continental, which can carry 12 passengers and 2 crew members, and is equipped with a power drive system, which can sail at high speed at sea to achieve rapid response and rescue capabilities. The CDM-100 is a large lifeboat independently developed by Continental, which has good stability and wave adaptability, and can carry out rescue operations in adverse weather conditions. The rescue fleet of the Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China is equipped with the "Rescue Ji'an-1", which is a large lifeboat with high speed, large hull and large passenger capacity, which can carry out rescue work at the scene of disasters and accidents in an all-round way (see Figure 3).
New optical/electrical devices based on degradable metal films have diversified diagnostic and therapeutic functions, and are potential application directions for biodegradable non-ferrous metal materials. The key technical problems that need to be solved are: studying the controllable degradation principle of degradable metal films and the variation law of their optical/electrical properties with metal degradation; Establish a variety of preparation processes for degradable metal thin film circuits, and grasp the influence of degradable polymers and semiconductors to form composite configurations on the interface of related materials and the performance of devices. Develop biosensors, stimulation therapy devices, and energy devices based on degradable metal films, explore the influence of material microstructure and degradation mechanism on performance, and grasp the synergistic degradation mechanism of related material composite configurations, and the mechanism of action with biological cells and tissues.
Fig.3 Large-scale life-saving scene at sea
4. Shallow equipment for shipwrecked ships
In terms of the rescue of shipwrecked ships, Shanghai Ship Design and Research Institute has designed a large-scale multi-functional comprehensive rescue ship in the deep sea, which is equipped with a full-sea depth multi-beam system, a deep towing system, a 500 t large towing machine, a high-redundancy three-stage dynamic positioning system, a 250 t active heave compensation crane, an unmanned high-speed rescue boat, a helicopter take-off and landing platform and a hangar and other operating equipment and system facilities, with surface search and rescue, deep-sea towing rescue, sea and air three-dimensional search and rescue, saturation diving, emergency rescue and rescue, External fire extinguishing, underwater rescue and salvage and other functions.
Tugboats and winches are important equipment for ships that are difficult to get out of the shallows. In view of the requirements of maintaining the best fuel consumption rate during tugboat navigation, Shanghai Maritime University proposes a fixed-value control fuel injection scheme, and its hybrid energy configuration optimization system can significantly reduce the fuel consumption rate of construction ships such as tugboats. The research team of Dalian Maritime University has successfully developed a full-sea deep geological winch system, and the key core components have achieved 100% localization.
(3) Marine environmental rescue equipment
The mainland's offshore oil spill emergency rescue capability has been significantly strengthened, and the operational efficiency of rescue equipment has been steadily improved, effectively protecting the ecological environment of the mainland's ocean. The mainland's oil spill disposal equipment has initially achieved the goal of no less than 1,000 t of oil spill removal capacity in waters within 50 n miles of coastal shore, and no less than 10,000 t in key waters. At present, the mainland salvage system has 1 (2 under construction) oil spill recovery capacity of 400 m3/h, 1 large oil spill recovery ship with a capacity of 3000 m3, 9 modified oil spill recovery ships, and imported 1 set of Finnish Lamor side-mounted oil spill recovery machine (LSC-5C/2300), 2 sets of Finnish Lamor built-in oil spill recovery machine (LSC-5C/270), 1 set of Norwegian Flaim mobile oil spill recovery machine (TransRec 125), One set of LFF-400W oil spill recovery machine and one set of LFF-200C oil spill recovery machine, and equipped with JHY-CYN200 oil storage bladder (1000 m3), JHY-CYN100 oil storage bladder (300 m3) and JHY-ZW3 inflatable oil boom (2000 m). The mainland's oil spill disposal capacity has been significantly improved, but key equipment and technology are still dependent on imports.
The mainland has also made some achievements in locating, detecting, and plugging deepwater oil and gas leaks. In terms of maintenance and positioning of deepwater oil and gas facilities, Zhonghai Fugro Geoscience Services (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. has achieved a positioning accuracy of 0.3 m underwater in the Lingshui deep-sea oilfield by adopting a comprehensive positioning technology based on the fusion of long baselines and ultra-short baselines and multi-source auxiliary sensors, as shown in Figure 4. The underwater acoustic integrated positioning and navigation system developed by Harbin Engineering University has achieved a positioning accuracy of better than 1 m in the ocean scientific expedition. Tianjin Institute of Water Transport Engineering Science proposes a sonar matching algorithm for seabed target detection, which can realize the acoustic detection of underwater leakage. Tianjin University has developed an intelligent detection ball in the tube, which is small in size and has good passability, which can effectively avoid the problem of jamming.
Fig.4. Schematic diagram of the application of long underwater baseline positioning in deepwater oilfield
Continental National Petroleum Pipeline Network Corporation has developed a pressurized plug plug plug that allows pipeline repairs to be performed without reducing the pressure and venting the pipeline, thereby reducing downtime. China University of Petroleum (Beijing) and Dalian Maritime University have jointly developed an intelligent plugging technology in deep-water pipelines, forming a variety of pipeline emergency disposal technology test platforms, which can realize onshore 10 MPa plugging pressure test, breaking through the structural limitation of the plugger entering the pipeline from the opening.
The research on underwater pumping technology and equipment in China started late, and the conventional underwater pumping and sewage cleaning/deep-water unmanned pumping operation mode is completed by divers to complete the underwater survey, cleaning, equipment installation and dismantling operations. The Water Transport Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport and the Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly developed the operation system of the ROV-assisted underwater pumping and sewage removal integrated machine (see Figure 5), which is assisted by ROV towing to complete the drilling and pumping operations, and the main operation process can be realized through remote control on the water.
Fig.5 ROV carrying an integrated underwater oil pumping and cleaning machine
(4) Special equipment for salvage projects
1. Special equipment for large-tonnage floating lifting
In 2017, the overall lifting operation of the wreck of the South Korean large ferry "Sewol" (see Figure 6) marked a technological breakthrough in the field of wreck salvage and large-tonnage floating. In the salvage process of the "Sewol" wreck, the Shanghai Salvage Bureau used key technologies including double barge lifting and skid salvage method, passive heave compensation and hydraulic synchronous lifting, showing the technical level comparable to foreign countries.
Fig.6 Salvage site of the Sewol shipwreck
Hydraulic synchronous lifting technology is responsible for combining multiple hydraulic lifting devices in large-tonnage lifting and floating for synchronous operation, which is one of the core technologies of large-tonnage salvage capacity. In terms of shipborne heave compensation, Hangzhou Guochen Zhengyu Technology Co., Ltd. has developed the first set of motion compensation platform installed on wind power operation and maintenance ships in China, which can effectively compensate for the heave and pitch movement of boarding and landing bridges. The research team of Shanghai Maritime University designed and tested a 200-ton semi-active heave compensation hoisting winch, and the average displacement compensation rate of the semi-active compensator can reach 92.9%. In order to solve the problem of heave compensation technology in the multi-cable floating and salvage scenario of large-tonnage shipwreck, the research team of Dalian Maritime University has carried out a series of researches, mainly including the construction of a multi-body dynamic system model of double barge lifting and skid and a model of hydraulic passive and semi-active heave compensation system, and the use of numerical simulation, hydrodynamic analysis and theoretical derivation to accurately locate and detect the attitude of the underwater shipwreck.
2. Shipwreck desilting and unloading equipment
Domestic desilting technology mainly relies on suction dredgers and dredgers. These devices use strong suction or cutting force to move sediment out of the wreck. China is in a leading position in the research and development of large-scale sediment dredging equipment, but the research and development of small suction devices for shipwreck salvage is insufficient. In recent years, the mainland has also been rich in research on shipwreck desilting, involving diver operation, sand suction ship technology, underwater robots and other methods. In terms of unloading and salvage of the wreck, in the process of salvaging the "Nanhai No. 1" wreck, relevant scientific researchers have used advanced unloading equipment and technology to successfully extract a large number of precious cultural relics safely.
3. Salvage special boats
Maritime professional rescue ships and salvage vessels are an important guarantee for the realization of life search and rescue and property rescue at sea. At present, the mainland's salvage system has 74 rescue vessels, 142 salvage vessels, and 23 salvage bases, and strives to be able to rush, rescue, dive, and fish up at critical moments and emergencies. In January 2024, the mainland's 14 000 kW large-scale deep-sea multi-functional rescue ship will be put into use, which is a new generation of "deep-sea rescue mothership" with the largest main scale, the strongest comprehensive salvage capability and the highest scientific and technological content developed and designed and built by the mainland so far, and it is also the world's largest and most advanced deep-sea all-weather, high-power, multi-functional comprehensive three-dimensional rescue vessel, which will effectively enhance the mainland's deep-sea comprehensive rescue and emergency response capabilities.
Fourth, there are deficiencies in the mainland's maritime search and rescue and salvage equipment
In recent years, the mainland's maritime search and rescue and salvage equipment has achieved leapfrog development, but compared with the development level of foreign developed countries and the growing needs of the domestic people, the mainland's maritime search and rescue and salvage equipment still has problems such as relatively backward technology, insufficient rescue capacity, low comprehensive performance, and weak strength in the rapid search and positioning of distressed targets, rescue of lives at sea, disposal of hazardous chemicals, and salvage of large-tonnage wrecks.
(1) The rapid search and positioning of targets in distress is relatively backward
The mainland has formed a relatively complete maritime emergency rescue system, which can carry out joint search and rescue missions by sea and air within a certain range, but due to the vast sea area and long coastline of the mainland, there are great shortcomings in the existing air search and rescue equipment and rescue capabilities. In terms of search equipment, because the mainland's search and rescue aircraft are mainly imported, and the advanced search equipment is subject to foreign import and export controls, only a few helicopters are equipped with search equipment, and their detection performance is poor, which is far from being able to meet the needs of maritime search and rescue applications, and there is an urgent need to develop technical equipment such as photoelectric imaging and synthetic aperture suitable for maritime search. The mainland is still in its infancy in terms of UAV search technology and equipment in deep sea areas, especially for long-endurance, harsh maritime environment, long-distance communication transmission, target search equipment, intelligent target detection and other technical capabilities are still relatively weak. Compared with foreign mature underwater search and positioning technology and equipment products, the mainland is still in the stage of scientific research and experiment, and there is still a big gap in the reliability, convenience and stability of the products.
(2) The ability to save lives at sea does not meet the needs
When faced with a large-scale marine accident, large-scale life-saving equipment at sea is usually required. Large-scale rescue of human life at sea refers to the large-scale rescue operation in the event of a shipwreck or disaster that causes a large number of people to be in distress at sea. From the dispatch of rescue forces to successful rescue, it is difficult to overcome the limitations of the rescue environment. Rescue helicopters and rescue boats can successfully save lives in ordinary sea conditions, but marine distress incidents often occur in harsh environments, and the worse the sea conditions, the more urgent the distress incident, and the greater the difficulty of rescue. Therefore, the bottleneck of life rescue at sea is the "bad sea state" environment. In addition, poor visibility at sea in a dark night environment and the long distance of the rescued object will be specific difficulties in the harsh environment. The key to saving human lives is how to use sophisticated equipment, rely on high-tech rescue personnel, break through the limitations of bad sea conditions, and use advanced rescue technology and equipment to carry out successful and efficient rescue.
(3) Large-scale oil spills, deep-water shipwrecks, oil pollution and hazardous chemicals disposal capacity is low
The demand for high-tech equipment for the disposal of hazardous chemical accidents is becoming more and more urgent, and the situation is more severe. Compared with other marine environmental pollution accidents, dangerous goods transported by sea have the characteristics of flammable, explosive, toxic and harmful, and once the transport ship collides or leaks, it is easy to cause major disasters such as fire, explosion and environmental pollution. The characteristics of hazardous chemicals after leakage are very complex, which is mainly manifested in the wide variety of leaks, and the chemical and physical forms of hazardous chemicals will change significantly after entering the sea. At present, the recovery capacity of the continental water surface oil spill is 400 m3/h, the depth of the underwater oil pumping operation is less than 60 m, and the underwater emergency oil pumping capacity is 350 m3/h. In the face of the huge risk of extraordinarily large oil spills, deep-water shipwrecks, oil pollution, and dangerous goods accidents, the mainland's disposal capacity is still quite weak, and it still relies on imports for key equipment and technology.
(4) The capacity of large-tonnage shipwreck salvage equipment is still weak
With the increasing number of large-tonnage ships, the situation of emergency rescue and salvage at sea is becoming more and more severe, once a large-tonnage ship sinks in the port area or the main channel, it is very easy to lead to the paralysis of the entire port or waterway, bringing serious environmental disasters. At present, the technology and equipment related to the floating and salvage of small and medium-sized ships in the mainland are relatively mature, while the sinking accidents of large-tonnage ships are relatively difficult, less frequent and long-term, and the existing rescue and salvage equipment is difficult to meet the needs of emergency rescue and salvage operations of large-tonnage shipwrecks in terms of operating depth, capacity and efficiency. In addition, the processes including barge hydrodynamic analysis, mooring system analysis and structural strength analysis before carrying out the actual project are relatively dependent on foreign mainstream finite element simulation software and numerical simulation software, and the foundation of localized salvage simulation and simulation software is still very weak.
5. The frontier development direction of the mainland's maritime search and rescue and salvage equipment
(1) Searching, locating and detecting targets in distress in the deep sea
In terms of satellite search and positioning, in view of the problem of search and positioning in the far sea, research is carried out on the cutting-edge technologies and equipment of multi-communication integration such as Beidou, maritime satellite, VSAT satellite, traffic VDES satellite, AIS satellite, and remote sensing satellite. (1) For the integrated search, navigation and remote sensing search satellite system and key payload design, the satellite networking mode and constellation mode are studied; (2) Develop an integrated search and application platform for space infrastructure such as AIS satellite constellation, remote sensing satellite constellation and navigation satellite constellation; (3) Research and development of integrated perception technology and equipment coupled with multiple environmental elements to achieve comprehensive perception of the environment and complex traffic situation of key shipping routes in the deep sea; (4) In view of the difficulty of communication support caused by the unique navigation environment of the deep sea, the standard, open and scalable multi-frequency and multi-mode, and highly reliable communication technology should be studied; (5) Research and development of a shipborne integrated radio communication system that supports the integration of multiple communication means such as Beidou, maritime satellite, VSAT satellite, and traffic VDES satellite.
In terms of aerial search, relevant cutting-edge technology and equipment research directions include: breakthroughs in UAV shipborne take-off and landing, strong wind and wave flight, and UAV anti-sinking positioning, and the development of maritime search and rescue UAV platforms to meet harsh maritime working conditions; Research and development of UAV-borne image transmission module integrating fourth-generation mobile communication/fifth-generation mobile communication (4G/5G) + satellites to realize real-time communication and data transmission between ships and shores, ships and drones.
Focusing on underwater search, we will carry out research on cutting-edge technologies and equipment for detection equipment such as airborne optoelectronic pod systems, radars, synthetic aperture radars, GNSS-R and synthetic aperture sonar. (1) Develop an airborne photoelectric pod system for wide-area search to meet the requirements of large-scale and high-resolution search at sea; (2) Research advanced detection technologies such as single-photon lidar, synthetic aperture radar, and GNSS-R to achieve all-weather, all-weather, and harsh conditions for the detection of distressed targets; (3) Breakthroughs in the development of key technologies for the development of high-precision multi-beam sounders, synthetic aperture sonars, magnetic sonors and other collaborative search equipment suitable for deep-sea search; (4) The equipment configuration of the optimal search capability of AUV in different water scenarios is studied; (5) Development of multi-depth cooperative search technology based on AUV matrix array.
(2) Saving lives at sea in bad sea conditions
In view of the rescue and salvage of capsized ships, we will focus on the development of cutting-edge technologies and equipment such as in-ship surveillance, communication, search, and rescue. (1) Development of equipment for surveying, photographing and searching for trapped people on capsized ships; (2) research and development of technologies to accurately locate capsized ships and trapped persons; (3) Research and development of advanced UAV rescue systems for surveillance, communication and rescue missions at the site of ship capsizing; (4) Development of high-strength marine ropes for fixing and stabilizing capsized ships; (5) Research and development of guardrails and supporters with excellent performance to enhance the stability of the flip buckle rescue equipment and provide support and protection for the rescue force; (6) Develop multi-functional lifeboats to rescue people trapped in capsized ships; (7) Develop an airbag rescue system to provide buoyancy and stabilize ships in distress to achieve cap rescue.
Focusing on the rescue needs of people who have fallen into the water at sea, the research and development of technologies and equipment in personnel positioning, communication, search and rescue are emphasized. (1) Research high-reliability artificial intelligence image recognition technology to realize long-distance automatic identification and positioning of people in the water, and improve rescue efficiency; (2) Research new lifting equipment and life-saving rigging to realize the rapid lifting of people who have fallen into the water; (3) Research and development of emergency life-saving equipment to provide buoyancy and protection for people who fall into the water; (4) Develop a new UAV search system, equip UAVs with infrared thermal imaging cameras and high-definition cameras to search for and locate people in the water; (5) Equipped with stable long-range communication equipment for contacting and coordinating rescue operations with people who have fallen into the water; (6) Develop new intelligent life-saving equipment to realize the functions of active rescue, active alarm and automatic positioning.
In addition, combined with artificial intelligence, new energy and a new generation of information technology, we will develop new technologies and new equipment for large-scale life-saving at sea. (1) Research on ship autonomous navigation and automation technology to realize unmanned operation and monitoring of life-saving ships; (2) Develop a new type of underwater search and rescue robot to carry out the search and rescue of trapped people, and achieve accurate positioning and rescue; (3) the development of water life-saving airships with vertical take-off and landing and long-term flight capabilities; (4) Research on new multi-functional life jackets, which are equipped with functions such as luminescence, sound, positioning and communication in addition to providing buoyancy; (5) Research and development of advanced emergency life-saving communication systems to achieve long-distance communication with trapped personnel and strengthen command and rescue coordination; (6) Research and development of life detection technology suitable for underwater to detect signs of life of people at sea.
(3) Efficient environmental rescue equipment
With the large-scale development of large-scale oil terminals, offshore oil platforms, offshore oil fields, etc., oil spill recovery ships will inevitably develop in the direction of specialization and large-scale. (1) Research on new oil spill ship equipment to improve its recovery capacity, operational efficiency and power system; (2) Improve the R&D and design capabilities of oil spill ships, and realize the localization of core equipment and systems, especially in oil spill recovery equipment, oil spill detection systems, ship power systems, control equipment, etc.; (3) Improve the technical level of intelligent and unmanned rescue equipment for environmental rescue equipment, and effectively ensure the safety of firefighters and rescue ships.
(4) Large-tonnage lifting and large-depth operation equipment
In the face of the increasingly diverse needs for emergency rescue and salvage of large-tonnage shipwrecks, technological breakthroughs have been made in the field of large-tonnage lifting and large-depth operation equipment. (1) Research and development of steel strand hydraulic synchronous lifting system, through electro-hydraulic proportional control technology, to achieve synchronous control and control accuracy in hydraulic lifting; (2) According to the differences in the layout of salvage equipment and operation requirements of different operation projects, modular large-tonnage lifting equipment is developed to improve the versatility of operation equipment and continuously improve the reliability of hydraulic system; (3) Study double pump, double proportional valve and double main circuit system to achieve continuous lifting, continuous lowering and large flow drive. In addition, the prediction of towed hydrodynamic performance, the optimization of the pressure regulation and shallow removal scheme of the cabin of the stranded ship, the multi-objective collaborative control method, and the optimal control scheme of fuel consumption are the key research and development directions of the shallow removal technology and equipment.
6. Suggestions for the development of maritime search and rescue and salvage equipment on the mainland
(1) Increase R&D investment in key equipment
Strengthen the research and development of key core technologies and equipment in the field of search and rescue and salvage, and increase investment in the research and development of forward-looking and strategic technologies in the field of search and rescue and salvage. It is suggested to focus on the major needs of mass distress rescue under high sea conditions, rapid overall salvage of large-tonnage and large-depth shipwrecks, deep-sea search and sweeping, large-scale marine oil spills, sunken oil storage and hazardous chemical pollution, reasonably increase R&D investment in key equipment, strengthen and highlight the future dominant position of core equipment and supporting technologies, and achieve key breakthroughs in the research and development of deep-sea semi-submersible salvage crane ships, large-scale deep-sea multi-functional rescue ships, deep-diving equipment, and underwater robots. It will form a capability to support systematic search and rescue operations, and enhance the global competitiveness and control of the mainland's deep-sea search and rescue and salvage equipment. At the same time, through the introduction of foreign advanced technology, focusing on tackling key problems, and collaborative operations, we will promote the integration of rescue and salvage equipment resources, and pave the way for the establishment of a systematic equipment chain and industrial chain for deep-sea search and rescue salvage.
(2) Promote the upgrading and iteration of search and rescue and salvage equipment
Aiming at the world's frontiers of scientific and technological development such as a new generation of information technology, artificial intelligence, new materials, new energy and new equipment, we will develop a comprehensive search and rescue salvage system platform with multi-system and multi-network interconnection, and provide progressive three-dimensional search and rescue services, diversified salvage equipment products, and efficient and reliable search and rescue and salvage support services. We will build an information-based, unmanned, and intelligent operation system and equipment system, continuously promote the upgrading and iteration of search and rescue and salvage equipment, and form a core equipment chain for the search and detection of sea and underwater targets, the rescue of lives at sea, the rescue of environmental resources, and the salvage of shipwrecks and sunken objects. Establish helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) groups, build a maritime satellite network, and build an integrated search and rescue equipment system based on shore, sea, air and space. Build a high-power rescue ship, and equipped with advanced deep-water scanning equipment, with a variety of conditions of deep-water rescue and salvage operation capabilities.
(3) Strengthen the ability of scientific and technological innovation to improve the level of intelligent equipment
Focusing on key issues such as life, environmental and property rescue, emergency rescue and salvage, and prevention and control of major marine environmental pollution, relying on the application of new technologies such as Internet+, big data, cloud computing, 5G, artificial intelligence, and Beidou, we will strengthen the foundation of informatization, promote the digital, networked, and intelligent development of the core elements of salvage equipment, and improve the scientific and technological innovation and research and development capabilities of search and rescue and salvage equipment. We will build a search and rescue communication network that "covers the near sea, takes into account the integration of the far sea, space and ground, and integrates network information", improves the communication systems of ship communication, aviation communication, underwater communication and satellite communication, and realizes the efficient interconnection of ships and aircraft, aircraft and ships. We will improve the incentive mechanism for scientific and technological innovation, increase the guarantee of scientific research funds, and promote the formation of a number of representative high-tech equipment achievements such as saturation diving and deep-sea search and salvage. Strengthen the cultivation of innovative talents, and cultivate a group of scientific and technological leaders with the research and development of search and rescue and salvage technology and equipment, the application of deep-sea search and scanning technology and equipment, and the salvage equipment of large-tonnage wrecks as the key direction.
(4) Deploy search and rescue and salvage technology and equipment to tackle key projects
It is recommended to give full play to the advantages of the mainland's system and mechanism, focus on the research and development of core equipment for deep-sea search and rescue and salvage, implement joint research by universities, scientific research institutes and enterprises, and carry out key technical and equipment research projects in the fields of deep-sea three-dimensional search technology and equipment, deep-sea emergency rescue technology and equipment, large-tonnage deep-water rescue and salvage technology and equipment, and deep-sea environmental rescue technology and equipment around the construction of large-scale passenger ships, hazardous chemical ships and deep-sea danger emergency response and search and rescue capabilities, and promote the deep integration of "production, education, research and application". Strengthen the important role of scientific and technological personnel in scientific and technological innovation in deep-sea search and rescue and salvage, and promote the comprehensive development of technical equipment, talent team and economic benefits in the field of search and rescue and salvage.
(5) Provide corresponding industrial policy support
Introduce corresponding support policies for the high-quality development of the high-end search and rescue and salvage equipment manufacturing industry, and further promote the combination of military and civilian or technology introduction, such as with the help of military helicopter research and development capabilities, to promote the military helicopter industry to civilian rescue helicopter research and development spillover. We will introduce preferential financial policies such as tax exemptions and subsidies for equipment R&D and manufacturing, the introduction of advanced equipment and technology, as well as an incentive system for the research and development of advanced high-end search and rescue and salvage equipment, actively negotiate cooperation with advanced search and rescue and salvage equipment manufacturers in Europe and the United States, attract joint ventures, and accelerate the localization of important core search and rescue and salvage equipment.
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About the Author
Li Huajun
He is an expert in marine engineering safety and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
He is mainly engaged in the research of marine engineering safety analysis and design, construction and operation and maintenance technology.
Note: This paper reflects the progress of research results and does not represent the views of Chinese Journal of Engineering Science.