Robot sub maker lauds Tianjin tech pool

It was an unusual day for Liu Haibing, an engineer from Tianjin, as he and a "friend" searched for a sunken bus, which had plunged into the Yangtze River in Chongqing after a fatal accident in October this year.

"It was not an easy task, as the underwater environment was very complicated at that time, including poor visibility and violent turbulence," he recalled.

In the end, it was his friend, a submersible robot built by Tianjin Sublue Ocean Science and Technology Co Ltd, who found the bus 70 meters under the surface of the river.