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Weicheng Cui

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Cui, Weicheng, Chair Professor at Westlake University. He obtained his Ph.D. from University of Bristol, UK. He was the "Distinguished Changjiang Professor" in the first patch at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the project leader for developing the deep manned submersible “Jiaolong”. He was awarded the "National Hero of Manned Deep Diving" and named one of the "Top Ten Chinese Science Stars" by Nature. Currently, he is engaged in the research and development of the next generation of submersibles and the frontier basic research on the unified theory of complex systems.

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Papers by Weicheng Cui

Bridging biology and robotics: advancing submersible technology from robotic to live-fish models

Academia Engineering, May 21, 2025

Marine resource exploration and environmental monitoring are essential for the sustainable develo... more Marine resource exploration and environmental monitoring are essential for the sustainable development of oceans. However, the high cost of conventional submersibles has hindered their widespread application. In this paper, we evaluate the performance and cost of second and third generations of submersibles and propose a novel fourth-generation submersible concept based on an advanced real-time fish monitoring platform. Through a comprehensive SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis, we conduct a systematic comparison between the third and fourth generations of submersibles, highlighting their respective advantages and limitations. Additionally, the research identifies and examines the critical technical and operational challenges associated with the implementation of fourth-generation submersible platforms. This may bridge the gap from robotics to biology.

Ultra-Short Baseline Positioning System for Full Ocean Depth

Ultra-Short Baseline Positioning System for Full Ocean Depth is presented in this paper. A planar... more Ultra-Short Baseline Positioning System for Full Ocean Depth is presented in this paper. A planar array is used to complete the intelligent beam tracking for improving signal-to-noise ratio. Spatial spectrum estimation technology is realized for two-dimensional direction of arrival estimation. And the feedback positioning results can be employed to track the target and achieve ultra-long-distance positioning. Quadri-Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) orthogonal separation code is proposed and designed to resist strong noise interference with spikes. The sea trial results show that the maximum detection distance is 15133m and the real-time positioning accuracy is higher than 0.3% of the slant range.

An Overview on Aquatic Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Annals of reviews and research, Nov 19, 2019

There are numerous applications for aquatic UAVs. In agriculture, they can be used to spray chemi... more

Specimens with Cut Central Plies An Experimental and Analytical Study of Delamination of Unidirectional

The effect of various factors on delamination has been studied using uni- directional glass fibre... more The effect of various factors on delamination has been studied using uni- directional glass fibre and carbon fibre-epoxy specimens with cut central plies. It is con- cluded that the fracture energy is not a material constant. Among the various factors which affect the fracture energy, the specimen thickness and the through thickness normal stress are the two most significant ones. A simple model is proposed to take account of these two factors. The new model gives excellent correlation with experimental results and is able to account for the effect of through thickness compressive stresses in mode II fracture, which is ignored in conventional fracture mechanics calculations.

A Nonlinear Phase Transition Dynamic Model for Shape Memory Alloys Based Deep Sea Actuators

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, Dec 8, 2022

A constitutive relation for shape memory alloys (SMAs) that is simple, accurate, and effective is... more A constitutive relation for shape memory alloys (SMAs) that is simple, accurate, and effective is the basis for deep-sea intelligent actuators used in marine engineering applications. The existing kinetic models of phase transition all have common drawbacks, such as sharp change at the turning point of the phase transition, constant phase transition rate, and many variable parameters. In this study, the one-dimensional thermodynamic constitutive equation for SMAs is extended based on the thermodynamic framework of the Boyd-Lagoudas constitutive model. In addition, the traditional phase transition function is replaced by an improved logistic nonlinear function in order to construct the relation for the macroscopic variable-speed phase transition that constitutes deep-sea actuator driving wires. The logistic model is compared to other models and verified by the numerical fitting results of the traditional constitutive model and the experimental data for two scenarios: (1) constant load and (2) constant temperature. The results show that the improved constitutive model has more advantages and better adaptability than the traditional models. Consequently, it can accurately describe the slow and gradual phase transitions in the initial and final regions of the phase transition with fewer variable parameters and has the ability to flexibly adjust the rate of change of the phase transition rate. These results provide important theoretical support for the design of SMA deep-sea actuators used in marine engineering applications.

SpineWave: Harnessing Fish Spinal Kinematics in Biomimetic Robotics for Enhanced Aquatic Exploration

Research Square (Research Square), Jun 25, 2024

Fish have endured millions of years of evolution, and their distinct rigid-flexible body structur... more Fish have endured millions of years of evolution, and their distinct rigid-flexible body structures have offered limitless inspiration for developing biomimetic robots. The current paper introduces a fish spine-like rigid-flexible transition structure and thus leads to scalable prototypes of biomimetic robotic fish. Inspired by fish anatomy, the structure incorporates expandable fishbone-like ribs with adjustable magnets to emulate the stretch and recoil of fish muscles, thus balancing the easy implementation of rigid actuators with enhanced flexibility. Notably, such a structure is capable of full-body modular packaging, allowing for rapid expansion and adaptation to different fish shapes and swimming modes. To optimize the hydrodynamics of the robot, we employed an evolutionary algorithm, resulting in a significant enhancement in free swimming performance. At last, we demonstrate the robustness of the constructed biomimetic robotic fish in a natural water environment, showing its real-world monitoring capabilities.

Low-Cost Distributed Optical Waveguide Shape Sensor Based on WTDM Applied in Bionics

Sensors

Bionic robotics, driven by advancements in artificial intelligence, new materials, and manufactur... more Bionic robotics, driven by advancements in artificial intelligence, new materials, and manufacturing technologies, is attracting significant attention from research and industry communities seeking breakthroughs. One of the key technologies for achieving a breakthrough in robotics is flexible sensors. This paper presents a novel approach based on wavelength and time division multiplexing (WTDM) for distributed optical waveguide shape sensing. Structurally designed optical waveguides based on color filter blocks validate the proposed approach through a cost-effective experimental setup. During data collection, it combines optical waveguide transmission loss and the way of controlling the color and intensity of the light source and detecting color and intensity variations for modeling. An artificial neural network is employed to model and demodulate a data-driven optical waveguide shape sensor. As a result, the correlation coefficient between the predicted and real bending angles reac...

Design of a Practical Metal-Made Cold Isostatic Pressing (CIP) Chamber Using Finite Element Analysis

Materials, May 18, 2022

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more

Multi-objective evolutionary design of central pattern generator network for biomimetic robotic fish

Complex & Intelligent Systems

Fish-inspired motion is an important research area with many applications in real-world tasks suc... more Fish-inspired motion is an important research area with many applications in real-world tasks such as underwater vehicles or robotic fish control design. Owing to robust, smooth, and coordinated oscillatory signals generated by Central Pattern Generators (CPGs) for locomotion control of robots with multiple degrees of freedom, CPGs are the most versatile solution for robotic control systems, especially in robotic fish. However, tuning central pattern generator parameters is difficult for complex mechanical system designs. Besides, most current CPG-based methods only consider one aspect (e.g., speed), which widens the gap between theory and practice in robotic fish design. Also, it may affect the practical applicability of the designed motion model to a certain extent. This paper addresses this problem by constructing a multi-objective evolutionary design of a central pattern generator network to control the proposed biomimetic robotic fish. A new CPG model is proposed to help biomim...

On Faith or Belief

Annals of Social Sciences & Management Studies, 2019

According to textual research, the two Chinese characters as a Chinese word first appeared in the... more According to textual research, the two Chinese characters as a Chinese word first appeared in the Buddhist translation of the "Mahavaipulya Buddhavataṃsaka Sutra" translated by Siksananda at The Tang Dynasty [2]. All the immortals are superior, people and others have similar beliefs. If it is difficult to practice asceticism, the Bodhisattva should be able to. In Buddhism, faith was focused on the Triple Gem, that is, Gautama Buddha, his teaching (the Dhamma), and the community of spiritually developed followers, or the monastic community seeking enlightenment (the Sangha). Later, the meaning of the word "faith or belief" changed slightly and could be used to express respect for a certain philosophy, religion, someone, something, and to the beliefs of heaven and earth, God, gods and ancestors. Therefore, the Chinese word faith or belief has a history of at least 1300 years of use. For this Chinese word, we can also understand the two characters like this: trust in self or others is a way of life, and "admire others" is a pursuit of life. The English word "Faith", derived from Latin fides and old French feid, is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept. In the context of religion, one can define faith as confidence or trust in a system of religious belief. Religious people often think of faith as confidence based on a perceived degree of warrant, while

A Comparison of BCM with BBCM

Annals of Social Sciences & Management studies, 2019

The Big Bang cosmological model (BBCM) is currently the most prevailing cosmological model for th... more The Big Bang cosmological model (BBCM) is currently the most prevailing cosmological model for the observable universe but it still exists many un-answered questions such as the existence of the Singularity and the reason for a sudden explosion. BBCM is completely based on the materialism ideology which suffers from many paradoxes. In order to resolve these paradoxes, the present author recently proposed a novel cosmological model based on Buddhist philosophy and thus it is called Buddhist cosmological model (BCM). The purpose of this paper is to carry out a detailed comparison between these two models. Through this comparison, one can find the fundamental reasons why these paradoxes exist in BBCM.

On a Karmic Management Approach to Push Forward a Large Project

Annals of Social Sciences & Management studies, 2019

To act as a project leader to manage a large research or engineering project is a dream for many ... more To act as a project leader to manage a large research or engineering project is a dream for many researchers. Traditionally only those with administration power can get the chance to be project leader and it may take him a long time to obtain the funding from governmental agency. In this paper, the author will introduce a karmic management approach for an ordinary researcher how to push forward a large project if he really has the dream. This approach has been practiced by the author in the last six years and reasonably validated.

Review of hydroelasticity theories for global response of marine structures

Ocean Engineering, 2006

Existing hydroelastic theories are reviewed. The theories are classified into different types: tw... more Existing hydroelastic theories are reviewed. The theories are classified into different types: twodimensional linear theory, two-dimensional nonlinear theory, three-dimensional linear theory and three-dimensional nonlinear theory. Applications to analysis of very large floating structures (VLFS) are reviewed and discussed in details. Special emphasis is placed on papers from China and Japan (in native languages) as these papers are not generally publicly known in the rest of the world.

Frontiers in Deep-Sea Equipment and Technology

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering

The conflict between population, resources, and environment in the twenty-first century made the ... more

Submersible

Encyclopedia of Ocean Engineering

Multidisciplinary design optimization of a human occupied vehicle based on Bi-Level integrated system collaborative optimization

China Ocean Engineering, 2015

The design of Human Occupied Vehicle (HOV) is a typical multidisciplinary problem, but heavily de... more The design of Human Occupied Vehicle (HOV) is a typical multidisciplinary problem, but heavily dependent on the experience of naval architects at present engineering design. In order to relieve the experience dependence and improve the design, a new Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) method "Bi-Level Integrated System Collaborative Optimization (BLISCO)" is applied to the conceptual design of an HOV, which consists of hull module, resistance module, energy module, structure module, weight module, and the stability module. This design problem is defined by 21 design variables and 23 constraints, and its objective is to maximize the ratio of payload to weight. The results show that the general performance of the HOV can be greatly improved by BLISCO.

An Underwater Wet-Mateable Electrical Connector with Dual-Bladder Pressure-Balanced Oil-Filled (PBOF) Technology

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering

Underwater wet-mateable connectors have been widely used to reduce the cost and the time of insta... more Underwater wet-mateable connectors have been widely used to reduce the cost and the time of installation, maintenance and reconfiguration in many fields, such as the oil and gas (O&G) industry, offshore renewable energy (ORE), and undersea observatories. In the past few years, the authors’ group has made some efforts in developing wet-mateable connectors. This paper presents a methodology for designing and testing a wet-mateable electrical connector. First, an innovative wet-mateable electrical connector with dual-bladder pressure-balanced oil-filled (PBOF) technology is proposed. Second, the generalized equations of differential pressure are derived. Then, a procedure of thermal-electric-structure (TES) coupling simulation is proposed, and a series of finite element analysis (FEA) involving coupled multi-field problems is conducted, including thermal-electric coupling analysis, static structural analysis, and dynamic analysis. Finally, a prototype of the proposed connector is devel...

Two-Layer Path Planner for AUVs Based on the Improved AAF-RRT Algorithm

Journal of Marine Science and Application

Grid Feature-Based Weighted Simulation Method for Multi-Objective Reliability-Based Design Optimization

International Journal of Computational Intelligence Systems

Reliability analysis and reliability-based design have attracted huge attention since their origi... more Reliability analysis and reliability-based design have attracted huge attention since their origin, especially in the engineering design optimization field. Integrating a novel grid feature (GF) mechanism into the weighted simulation method (WSM), a grid feature-based weighted simulation method (GFWSM) is proposed in this paper. By sorting the samples in the random variable space, the GF mechanism serializes the failure probability calculation process, which can reduce the number of performance function evaluations required by the WSM. The proposed GFWSM is integrated into an efficient evolutionary multi-objective optimizer, disruption-based multi-objective equilibrium optimization algorithm (DMOEOA), for solving multi-objective reliability-based design optimization (MORBDO) problems. Different reliability analysis examples are employed to verify the advantages of the proposed GFWSM. Various constrained multi-objective reliability-based design optimization problems have been selecte...

Study of pressure-balanced oil-filled (PBOF) technology

Ocean Engineering