Seahorse ROUV program begun in 2008 and Professor Ma Xia-Fei (马厦飞) is the program manager, and the general designers of Seahorse ROUV are Professor Lian Lian (连琏) and Professor Ren Ping (任平).[3]Seahorse ROUV is designed to dive to a maximum depth of forty-five hundred meters, and from April 20, 2014 thru April 22, 2014, Seahorse UAV conducted more than seventeen dives in three different phases of sea trial, reaching the maximum designed depth to 4502 meter.[6] After the successful sea trials, state certification is received soon after, and subsequent versions have been developed. Seahorse ROUV is designed to perform a variety of research missions and it is equipped with sonar, cameras, mechanical arms, and in addition to research missions, Seahorse ROUV is also capable of performing maintenance work on scientific equipment on seabed.[2]Seahorse utilizes modular design concept to enable different tools to be replaced rapidly based on mission needs while sharing a common chassis, and 90% of components and technologies of Sea Horse are indigenously developed and produced in China.[3]During deployment, Seahorse ROUV is usually carried by Chinese scientific research vessel Ocean 6 (Hai-Yang or Haiyang 6, 海洋6号),[7][2][3][4]though it can also be carried by other Chinese ships equipped to handle ROUVs. Specification:[2][5]
Length: 3.1 to 6 meter, depending on equipment carried
Width: 1.85 to 2.1 meter, depending on equipment carried
Height: 2.6 to 2.7 meter, depending on equipment carried
Weight: 4.4 to 5 ton, depending on equipment carried