Overview
- A Northwestern Polytechnical University team ran a pool test on August 29 that deployed 116 TH‑618 autonomous underwater vehicles to follow a preset formation without human input for 34 minutes and about 500 metres of travel.
- Each TH‑618 is roughly 61.5 cm long, 20 cm wide and 5.14 kg, with a claimed range near 30 km and battery life over eight hours, and the vehicles use a camera‑based vision system and real‑time data to maintain formation.
- Guinness World Records monitored the demonstration and certified the record after officials observed the August 29 trial; the test was carried out with industry partner Xian Tianhe Maritime Technologies, a unit of Xian Tianhe Defence Technology.
- The demonstration took place in a controlled 50 m by 20 m swimming pool, and researchers warn that underwater limits such as low‑bandwidth acoustic communications, poor visibility, currents and longer distances remain key obstacles to open‑ocean deployment.
- Observers say the feat doubles earlier swarm tests and illustrates both civilian uses like seabed surveys and pipeline inspection and potential military interest, and they say the next signs to watch are larger open‑water trials and solutions for underwater communication and navigation.