Introducing Dolphin apparently further development of Haiyan series glider that has been in service with Chinese oceanographic service of PLAN But this improved model is more directed toward ASW since it is equipped with propeller, miniature sensor to detect submarine. Not sure if it operational yet but reading this article they have tested and improve the system for swarm operation and add artificial intelligence. Should be close to operational
The Dolphin is based on the
glider developed by researchers at Tianjin University. Like most sea gliders, the Haiyan is a tubular robot with wings and a visible antenna. However, it is somewhat unusual in that it is equipped with a small propeller,
if needed to surface quickly in the event of a potential submarine contact. Chinese oceanographers have already deployed Haiyan gliders within the first island chain and beyond. A specially designed Haiyan variant (
) is capable of diving to tremendous depths, including the
. Another variant (
) has been built for greater endurance, purportedly up to five months of continuous operations.
The Dolphin Acoustic Glider (Source:
)
The Dolphin a typical Haiyan glider, except for a vector sensor protruding from its nose. Within the body of the glider, forward of the batteries, is its . indicating that the platform is designed to autonomously detect, classify, and locate undersea targets, not merely to record and transmit raw data for interpretation elsewhere.
The Dolphin project is led by the (海军水下作战环境研究所) at the PLAN Submarine Academy. It is by the Institute’s Director, Rear Admiral Da Lianglong, perhaps the PLAN’s expert on undersea science and technology. Rear Admiral Da has won numerous national, provincial, and military for his work on how the undersea environment affects sonar performance and submarine tactics.
Under Rear Admiral Da’s leadership, the Environmental Research Institute has shrewdly leveraged civilian organizations to help advance its mission. In 2013, his institute turned its attention to
. Then, in 2016, it joined with the Qingdao Pilot National Lab for Marine Science and Technology to create the
in Qingdao, with Rear Admiral Da as its director. This allows the Submarine Academy to benefit from the expertise, access, and resources available to the civilian marine science community. When Xi Jinping visited the Qingdao Pilot National Lab in June 2018, he
about the importance of civil-military integration in marine science. Rear Admiral Da
in the audience, the embodiment of Xi’s ideal.
Milestones
The team at the Submarine Academy overcame several technical challenges to make the Dolphin a viable ASW platform including self-noise, contact localization fidelity, and overcoming the immense pressure water pressure of deep dives.
The first was self-noise. Researchers originally built the Haiyan glider for oceanographic research, where self-noise is far less of a concern. However, when detecting submarines, it is vital that an ASW platform be as quiet as possible to make it easier to distinguish the relevant signatures from other noises and thereby maximizing the signal to noise ratio. This is especially important when that signature is extremely faint, like those emitted by modern submarines.
The Haiyan produces noise at the bottom of its dive, when a pump activates to increase buoyancy needed for the ascent. It also produces noise when the propeller engages. These noise problems, however, are simple fixes since the glider can be programmed to turn off its vector sensor during the brief periods when the pump and propeller are on. For the Chinese researchers, the real challenge was reducing the noise generated by the mechanisms used to maintain the glider’s course and attitude. Researched overcame this challenge by changing the position of the glider’s internal battery packs. Through
conducted at first in specially designed pools followed later by tests in the South China Sea, the researchers were able to
attitude and course adjustment mechanisms to reduce this self-noise.
Finally, Chinese scientists also had to develop a vector sensor that could reliably operate in the high-pressure environment of the deep ocean. Since many countries prohibit the sale of acoustic sensors to China, researchers could not simply import a foreign product. Since the early 2000s, experts at Harbin Engineering University have conducted on vector sensors. The team at the Submarine Academy built off their work to develop a deep water vector sensor. In 2019, researchers the new sensor in the South China Sea at depths of 800 meters and 1,200 meters with promising results. That same year, Rear Admiral Da and several other colleagues at the Submarine Academy patented a vector sensor that could effectively operate down to 4,000 meters. According to their , the sensor could be particularly suited for unmanned platforms like gliders “for use in submarine detection.”