The 2023 China Underwater Robot Professional Contest (CURPC) and Artificial Intelligence and Underwater Robot Summit Forum were held on the golden coast of Jinshitan from 10 to 13 August. It was co-sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Dalian Municipal Government, and Pengcheng Laboratory and co-hosted by Dalian University of Technology, Dalian Science and Technology Bureau, Dalian Jinpu New Area Management Committee, and Dalian Jinshitan National Tourism Resort Management Committee.

With its increasing technological influence at home and abroad, CURPC welcomed a number of new domestic and overseas teams. 21 teams met for the finals, and international teams such as the University of Tokushima came as observers. Underwater "machine war" was about to break out! Each participating team responded to real ocean environment through technological upgrades and innovative designs. In this contest, new technologies such as binocular recognition, millimeter wave and wireless control were applied. Finally, OurEDA II of DUT won the first prize in human-machine collaborative grasping, the Liaodagongyu 11618 won the second prize in the human-machine collaborative grasping and the automatic grasping, and the Chijiahong team won the third prize in the human-machine collaborative grasping and the autonomous grasping. OurEDA II won the third prize in autonomous grasping.

It is reported that the 2023 CUPRC continued to improve evaluation indicators and methods based on previous six contests and increased contest difficulty and operational efficiency. The 2023 CUPRC 1) applied virtual reality presentation and wireless optical communication transmission to establish a presentation system for underwater environment and robot posture display; 2) enhanced the inspection of automatic detection capabilities in real ocean environments, and provided cutting-edge technical reserves for applications in areas such as seabed exploration, marine infrastructure maintenance, and marine rescues; 3) focused on inspecting operators' operating capabilities and the performance of underwater robots, encouraged contestants to adopt wireless operation, and gradually achieved remote wireless control operations, either shore-based or live broadcast; 4) highlighted the intelligence level of underwater robots and assessed their flexible operating ability of autonomously grasping fresh marine animals. The successful holding of CUPRC one after another has promoted the R&D progress of underwater robots in overall control, underwater operations and communications, intelligent sensors, integrated positioning and navigation systems, etc. More than 100 related patents have been hatched and produced through CUPRC, and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements has been realized.