China's independently developed 6,000-meter-level deep-sea remotely operated vehicle (ROV) successfully completed its maiden trial in the South China Sea on August 23, fully validating the performance and functionality of the entire system.

The ROV, named Haiqin, completed multiple dives during the trial, reaching a maximum depth of 4,140 meters. It conducted various scientific experiments, testing a range of technical parameters as well as stability and reliability of the system.

"Before the trial, the ROV passed the 6,000-meter pressure test in a land-based testing environment. The sea trial served as a verification process," Cui Yunlu, the mission leader and chief engineer of detection technology at the Center of Ocean Expedition of the Sun Yat-sen University, told China Media Group.

As per conventional protocols, once a 6,000-meter ROV passes a 4,000-meter sea trial, it is generally considered to meet full depth requirements, said Cui.

Designed for deep-sea exploration, the ROV was mounted on the Zhong Shan Da Xue research and training vessel. It can accurately locate, observe and obtain samples of deep-sea scientific research targets. It can also carry out long-term deep-sea scientific research tasks, such as marine surveys, biodiversity studies, new species discovery and gene acquisition near the seabed.

The expedition, led by the Sun Yat-sen University, set sail on August 13 from Zhuhai City, south China's Guangdong Province, and is scheduled for a 25-day mission in the South China Sea.

The journey also includes the deep-sea scientific applications of the fully autonomous ROV Haidou-1, which will conduct multi-disciplinary seafloor sampling tasks.

Both Haiqin and Haidou-1 will continue to operate in the South China Sea, supporting a variety of scientific objectives, including unmanned aerial observation of oceanic weather patterns, marine geological process detection, deep-sea biological ecology studies, and 30-meter gravity coring sampling.