IROS 2025 Keynotes - Field Robotics: Jiancheng Yu

Why It Matters

The accelerated design cycle and enhanced performance of long‑range AUVs enable more extensive, cost‑effective ocean monitoring and seabed exploration, delivering strategic advantages to scientific, commercial, and defense stakeholders.

Key Takeaways

• Multidisciplinary optimization cuts AUV design time from days to hours
• Integrated thruster design raises propulsion efficiency above 60%
• Adaptive sampling algorithm achieves 89% coverage with lower energy use
• New AUV models exceed 6,000 m depth and 4,000 km endurance
• Field trials confirm 83‑day missions and accurate thermocline mapping

Summary

The keynote at IROS 2025 presented a multidisciplinary optimization framework for long‑range autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), aiming to overcome traditional design bottlenecks and deliver cost‑effective, high‑performance ocean observation platforms. The speaker, Jiancheng Yu of the Shenyang Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, outlined four critical technology areas—multidisciplinary design, propulsion efficiency, control and observation, and integration/scalability—before introducing a new design pipeline that reduces the AUV concept‑to‑prototype cycle from several days to just one or two hours.

Key insights include a single‑calculation service that guarantees optimal design schemes, a motor‑hard integrated thruster that lifts propulsion efficiency from roughly 50% to over 60%, and a self‑adaptive buoyancy and attitude system that expands climb capability to 30°. The adaptive, coverage‑driven sampling algorithm demonstrated an 89% spatial coverage rate while respecting strict energy budgets, outperforming conventional yo‑yo sampling methods.

The presenter highlighted the SEAWE 200‑kg AUV as a proof point, showing superior endurance compared with leading U.S., U.K., and Norwegian platforms. Field trials recorded continuous operations of 83 days covering more than 4,000 km, depths beyond 6,000 m, and thermocline mapping results that matched ship‑based measurements, confirming both reliability and scientific value.

These advancements suggest that future AUV deployments can be designed faster, operate longer, and gather higher‑resolution data with reduced operational costs, reshaping oceanographic research, offshore resource monitoring, and strategic maritime surveillance.

Original Description

"Keynote Title: ""Multidisciplinary Optimization Design and Key Technologies for Long-range Autonomous Underwater Vehicles""

Speaker Biography

Jiancheng Yu is a Professor and the Director of the Center for Innovative Marine Robotics at the Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from the institute in 2006 and has been working there since March 2006. His research specializes in novel-concept underwater vehicles, long range autonomous underwater vehicles, adaptive ocean sampling theory and technology, and control methods for underwater robots. From August 2009 to July 2010, he was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Electronics and Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Abstract

The endurance of AUV is closely related to its sailing resistance, the amount of carrying batteries and equipment load, which involves interactions among multiple disciplines. In order to develop the conceptual design of a long-range AUV in the early stage, a multidisciplinary optimization design framework is presented for decision-makers to explore the given design space, which takes into account the coupling between the disciplines of hull form, structural design and energy use. A Self-adaptive Surrogate Ensemble (SASE) method is proposed to replace the expensive process of hydrodynamic analysis, a recommended approach by the China Classification Society (CCS) specification is applied to carry out the design of metallic pressure hulls, and the classical lamination theory and Tsai–Wu criteria are adopted in the design of composite pressure hulls. The evaluation model of AUV endurance is created from the perspective of energy capacity and consumption. The conceptual design of a 200 kg-class AUV is executed to maximize the endurance based on the proposed multidisciplinary optimization design framework. Then, a brief introduction is given to the key technical issues involved in the development of long-range autonomous underwater vehicles. Finally, The Sea-Whale 2000 AUV was developed based on the optimal result and the excellent endurance performance in the sea trial validated the effectiveness of the proposed design method.

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