China Completes Sea Trials Of An AI-Powered Crewed Submersible At 7,000 Meters That Could Help Future Nuclear Submarines

China recently tested an upgraded AI system onboard the Jiaolong Submersible in the Pacific Ocean, specifically the Philippine Basin. During the trials, the crewed sub reached depths of about 23,000 feet or 7056 metres.

The tech could enhance decision making capabilities and emergency response onboard nuclear submarines, since they cannot depend on continuous satellite communication underwater.

In this situation, the AI-based systems could aid the crew to process the information, assess the condition of the equipment and make real-time decisions with restricted support from the human world.

Among the key upgrades, Jiaolong has a AI- supported seabed analysis system and a fault-diagnosis one as well. The latter helps pilots identify issues with the onboard equipment and respond to them during dives.

If an issue arises, the system offers troubleshooting processes, suggestions and a record of previous such failures if any. It covers vital equipment including propulsion and control systems.

It also has an exploration system which constantly provides suggestions depending on the path the submarine takes.

The system was built using a massive AI Model. It distinguishes threats from the surrounding marine organisms and other flora with precision. This development shows that AI can be used to support specialised underwater missions in the near future.

This technology is used to identify issues in the submarine equipment on time, before they can become serious enough leading to an accident. According to sources, the AI system was trained using over 800,000 images which prevents it from misidentifying any object underwater.

Not only this, pilots can interact with the system like a conversation to obtain information or data collected. The system can even rebuild the submarine’s course in 3-D, analyse the geological features on the course or provide any other relevant data when asked. The system can generate highly-detailed reports on seabed materials, marine organisms, the temperature variations along the course etc.

Though it has been designed mainly for scientific exploration, it could be adopted for military application by making slight changes in the design.

For example, in such a case, the system could be fed acoustic data gathered by the sonar systems of submarines, which could then help to correctly identify underwater threats. It could also be used to differentiate between different kinds of underwater noise and identify unusual acoustic noises for operators.

Jiaolong is China’s first independently designed deep-sea manned submersible, named after a sea dragon in mythological stories. It can accommodate two pilots and one researcher or scientist. The submersible is launched from the mothership, the Deep Sea No.1. and can be recovered using a crane system located on the stern of the mothership.