On March 28-29, the first Greater Bay Area Underwater Robot Application Challenge was held at the Ocean Ranch in Zhuhai, Guangdong. This is the first underwater robot competition in China that uses a real ocean ranch as the competition venue. The competition venue is directly moved to the depths of the real ocean, allowing technology to be tested in actual combat. The competition takes place in a real sea environment, and the difficulty increases exponentially. This requires robots to not just stay at the prototype level, but to deeply optimize around requirements such as cost, reliability, and ease of use, and to have the potential for rapid implementation and promotion. ”The experts in the competition related review stated. The competition topics of underwater anchor rope salvage, underwater shellfish grabbing, and net clothing cleaning all come from the "troublesome things" that marine ranch enterprises face every day. Previously, cleaning the hulls of small sailboats required hiring frogmen for diving operations or scheduling cleaning at the shipyard, which not only resulted in losses due to suspension but also had certain limitations. ”Cai Qianxia, the marketing manager of Shenzhen Hanhai Huafan Cleaning Robot Co., Ltd., the award-winning unit of the competition, said that their company's robot products can operate 24 hours a day without interruption, and the cleaning efficiency is more than 10 times higher than traditional methods. In 2025, the marine ranch of Zhuhai Yuehe Fisheries Co., Ltd. was severely damaged due to the impact of Typhoon Huajiasha, with over 700 iron anchors scattered and lost. Due to the huge cost of human search, the iron anchor is still sinking on the seabed, causing a loss of millions of yuan. The emergence of underwater robots will help rewrite this dilemma - they can search and locate in large areas of sea and complex sea conditions, allowing facilities that have sunk into the deep sea to "see the light of day". Lin Jincheng, the general manager of Zhuhai Yuehe Fishery Co., Ltd., said that some participating teams have shown outstanding performance in intelligent recognition, autonomous operation, and anti-interference ability, which are the functions that ocean ranches urgently need to implement. This competition speaks with 'real scenes, real needs, real orders'. In the early stage of the competition, a list of 15 million yuan opportunities for the application of marine underwater robots was released, covering real operational needs such as net cage inspection, facility salvage, ecological monitoring, and fishing. In addition, with potential orders totaling over 100 million yuan from 17 primary development entities of marine ranches in Guangdong Province, it will provide precise research and development directions and industrialization paths for participating teams. The first Greater Bay Area Marine Underwater Robot Application Challenge is a vivid case of Zhuhai, Guangdong Province promoting the development of marine economy through technological innovation. As a city with a marine economy worth billions, Zhuhai has a sea area of 9348 square kilometers. As of the end of 2025, the city has built 10 truss platforms, 452 gravity net cages of various types, and a total water volume of about 1.45 million cubic meters for deepwater aquaculture. A number of modern marine ranching demonstration projects such as the "Bay Area Lingding" breeding factory ship have been launched here, and high-end platforms such as the South Marine Laboratory have gathered here. The marine economy has become the blue driving force for Zhuhai's high-quality development. The good development trend of the marine economy has attracted industry giants to compete for layout. On February 24th, the Zhuhai Municipal Government signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Zhuhai Tanhai Yacht Technology Co., Ltd. for the high-end yacht industry base project, with a total planned investment of approximately 5 billion yuan. According to the agreement, the project will focus on building a modern and intelligent high-end yacht manufacturing base in Zhuhai, with a research and innovation center focused on new energy power technology, intelligent driving systems, new materials, and other fields. It will also provide a yacht operation service center and a professional bonded maintenance center with full lifecycle services. Nowadays, in Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai City, Hongwan Central Fishing Port is accelerating the construction of a national level fishing port economic zone, and 40 marine science and technology innovation platforms such as the Marine Electronic Information Industry Park are gathering rapidly. 140 high-tech enterprises related to the sea, including the national "little giant" Lankun Ocean, are flourishing. The complete innovation ecosystem provides strong support for the research, testing, and transformation of underwater robot technology. The relevant person in charge of Zhuhai Ocean Development Bureau expressed the hope that through this competition, the application scenarios of underwater robots in the ocean will be vigorously developed, the entire chain of "industry university research funding" will be connected, the ocean ranch industry will be promoted to new development, and the construction of a regional ocean center city will be accelerated. (New Society)