Underwater Welding Robot AquaWelder Completes South China Sea Oil Platform Repair: Achieves On-Land Welding Quality at 300-Meter Depth

Underwater Welding Robot AquaWelder Completes South China Sea Oil Platform Repair

On October 27, 2030, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced that its AquaWelder underwater welding robot successfully completed structural welding repair of an oil platform jacket at a depth of 300 meters in the South China Sea. This marks China's first unmanned deepwater structural welding operation.

Underwater welding is one of the most challenging operations in marine engineering. Traditional methods require divers to work in high-pressure underwater environments, posing extreme safety risks while making weld quality difficult to guarantee. AquaWelder employs hyperbaric dry welding technology — constructing a sealed dry chamber in the welding area, evacuating seawater from the chamber, and performing welding in a dry environment.

AquaWelder was jointly developed by the Harbin Institute of Technology's Underwater Robotics Laboratory and CNOOC. The robot is equipped with a vision sensing system, laser tracking system, and adaptive welding control system, enabling it to autonomously identify weld seam positions, plan welding paths, and adjust welding parameters in real time.

CNOOC's Engineering Director stated: "AquaWelder's weld quality passed ultrasonic non-destructive testing and met Class 1 weld standards, equivalent to on-land automated welding quality. More importantly, the entire operation required no divers to enter the water."

AquaWelder has a maximum design working depth of 500 meters and a single-operation endurance of 8 hours (including dry chamber construction and welding). CNOOC plans to deploy AquaWelder for routine maintenance operations at South China Sea deepwater oil and gas fields in 2031.