(Yicai Global) July 25 -- China's home-grown autonomous underwater robot Tansuo ran its maiden test in the north of the South China Sea yesterday.

The robot, which is around 3.5 meters long and 1.5 meters high and wide, was shipped to the testing area by Kexue, an ocean research vessel, to begin its 20-hour dive, state-owned news agency Xinhua reported.

After entering the water, Tansuo is free to run underwater autonomously, as programmed, said Zhao Hongyu, associate research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Shenyang Institute of Automation, which developed the robot. It can dive to depths of 4,500 meters.

During its first experiment, Tansuo will carry out acoustic scanning of the terrain for 10 hours, with a range of about 4000 meters by 2000 meters. After, it will spend 10 hours taking optical photographs within an area of around 600 meters by 300 meters.

The difference between an autonomous underwater robot and a remotely operated unmanned submersible is that the robot has no cables connecting it to the control ship, giving it a larger range, the report said.