China News Service, Xi'an, September 24 (Reporter Alina) The reporter learned from Northwestern Polytechnical University on the 24th that the official certification of Guinness World Records recently announced that Northwestern Polytechnical University and Xi'an Tianhe Haiphong Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. have created the world record for "the most underwater autonomous vehicles sailing simultaneously", with 116 underwater autonomous vehicles achieving synchronized formation navigation.
On August 29, 2026, under the supervision and witness of the Guinness World Records official certifier and expert witness team throughout the process, the "TH-618" underwater autonomous vehicle entered the water one after another and deployed, immediately starting the fully autonomous submersible mode, without manual control throughout the process. Each aircraft relies on real-time visual perception technology to carry out autonomous formations, automatically maintain formations, and all sail in an orderly manner underwater. After 34 minutes of stable and continuous sailing, the aircraft successfully completed the formation sailing on the preset route of more than 500 meters. After strict official verification and full traceability review by Guinness World Records, it was finally confirmed that 116 underwater autonomous vehicles successfully achieved synchronized formation navigation, and a new Guinness World Record was officially born.
How difficult is it to sail "in a group" underwater? According to reports, the underwater environment is complex. There are no wireless communication signals, it is impossible to transmit instructions in real time, there is no satellite navigation and positioning, and it is impossible to rely on external systems to calibrate routes. At the same time, it faces challenges such as high pressure in the water body, low underwater visibility, limited environmental perception means, and low operational error tolerance. In such an environment, enabling dozens or hundreds of aircraft to achieve fully autonomous, long-term, and stable formation coordinated navigation has always been a core problem in the field of global underwater intelligent equipment. This time, a hundred-ship-scale cluster sailed stably, achieving a new breakthrough in large-scale coordinated navigation of underwater unmanned systems.
The TH-618 underwater autonomous vehicle that set this world record is 61.5cm long, 20cm wide, and 28cm high. The whole machine is only 5.14kg. It supports rapid deployment by a single person, has a maximum endurance of 30 kilometers, can operate continuously for more than 8 hours, has a navigation accuracy of ≤5%, and has strong navigation stability.
Miniaturization is only the foundation. The TH-618 adopts a multi-degree-of-freedom propeller layout and relies on a mobile phone vision camera system to complete refined operations such as vertical lifting, in-situ steering, hovering in the water, constant depth and speed control, terrain tracking, and landmark recognition. It can operate independently according to the preset route and encounter emergencies such as water disturbances and minor collisions. It can also rely on the embodied intelligent adaptive correction mechanism to autonomously identify abnormalities, intelligently escape, and quickly return to its location.
The equipment relies on general-purpose smartphone hardware to build an integrated sensing and control system. It simplifies the overall architecture through a highly integrated solution, providing a new technical path for the lightweight and popularization of underwater intelligent equipment.
It is reported that since 2010, Professor Chen Jianfeng's team from the School of Navigation of Northwestern Polytechnical University has continued to carry out technological research on underwater information perception, underwater target detection, and unmanned vehicle intelligence, and has accumulated rich scientific research results in the fields of hydroacoustic communications and underwater visual perception. Alumni enterprise Xi'an Tianhe Haiphong Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. has long carried out the industrial layout of autonomous underwater vehicles and has formed a mature system in terms of overall equipment design, precision production and manufacturing, process optimization, and quality control. The cooperation between schools and enterprises began with major national projects, ranging from basic research to technical research, to jointly explore the in-depth integration of industry, academia and research, and promote the continuous implementation and iteration of scientific and technological achievements. This breakthrough further combines the scientific research team's intelligent algorithms, cluster technology and large-scale equipment manufacturing capabilities, providing support for the practical application of technological achievements.
Facing the future, Professor Chen Jianfeng's team will rely on the miniaturized underwater vehicle cluster platform to continue to tackle core key technologies, tap into the innovative potential of ocean exploration and underwater operations, and explore new technological paths for deep-sea development and utilization.
