Their latest research, titled “Plasticized electrohydraulic robot autopilots in the deep sea”, was published in the journal Science Robotics. Conducted in collaboration with Zhejiang University and the China Ship Scientific Research Centre, the research team has developed an electrohydraulic-driven soft robot which has been applied to deep-sea exploration.
As the largest unexplored frontier on the earth, the deep sea holds the key to understanding life origins, resource exploration and climate evolution.
However, scientists face significant challenges due to extreme conditions such as high pressure and low temperatures during their exploration. There is also another obstacle: balancing the high costs of exploration and equipment reliability with the protection of fragile deep-sea ecosystems, according to the research team.