Peking University, November 2, 2016: The World Robot Conference, co-hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China, China Association for Science and Technology and the People's Government of the Beijing Municipality, was successfully held from October 21 to 25 at Beijing Yizhuang International Conference and Exhibition Center. As an important part of the conference, the International Underwater Robot Competition, co-hosted by the International League of Underwater Robotand the Chinese Institute of Electronics, was held at the same time. Professor Xie Guangming from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management of Peking Universitycurrently acts as the chairman of the International League of Underwater Robot, and he is the founder of the competition as well.

The International Underwater Robot Competition has already been held eight times since its initiation in 2008. It is the first international robot contest ever proposed by the Chinese.In 2016, the competition is held in Beijing once again, which, during the past seven years, has been held in Taiyuan, Jinan, Chengdu, Nanjing, Ningbo, Chaozhou and Lanzhou. The underwater robots–the focus of the competition – will compete in different contests and do various presentations. There are two types of contests: academic and industrial, including water polo, synchronized swimming, joint operation of ground, naval and air forces, inspection of petroleum pipelines, exploitation of underwater, fishing and so on. The contests are a perfect combination of research and education, being highly challenging in technology as well as aesthetically pleasing.

This year, the competition has attracted a total of 531 teams from 109 schoolsall over the world, including the US, the Netherlands, Korea, China and so on. There are over 1300 attendants competing in 6 major events and 92 minor events. The number of the schools, teams and individuals participating in the competition has all reached an all-time high. After 4 days of competition, the teams of Peking University, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Ocean University of China, Taiyuan University of Technology and other institutions have all won at different events. A seminar on the development of underwater robots and the World Forum on Robot were held at the same time.

During the competition, member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Chairman and Party Secretary of the National Committee of the People's Political Consultative Conference Jia Qinglin visited and held an in-depth discussion on underwater robots with Xie Guangming. Jia Qinglin had a keen interest in bionic robots, meanwhile pointing out that the development of marine technology is relatively slow compared to that of space technology. He expected a breakthrough to be made in the near future by technicians in relevant institutions headed by Peking University.