Deep-sea soft soil and deep-sea mining vehicle interaction: From soil properties to locomotion performance

The vast ocean floor holds abundant mineral resources, characterised by a wide variety, large reserves, and high grade. It has tremendous prospects for development and utilisation. Necessitating intensified efforts in key core technology development for deep-sea mineral resource exploitation. As crucial equipment in the field of deep-sea mining engineering, the performance and reliability of heavy-duty equipment for deep-sea mining play a critical role in the development of deep-sea resources. This paper provides a systematic analysis of the development status of deep-sea mining vehicles both domestically and internationally. Starting from the fundamental scientific issues of soil-vehicle interactions, it reviews the progress of research on the mechanical characteristics of deep-sea soft soil, stress response mechanisms under mining vehicle loading, and the behavior of track-soft soil interface contact. The evolution of the walking performance and motion behavior of deep-sea mining vehicles is summarized, and existing issues and future research priorities related to the coupling effect between deep-sea soft soil and dynamic equipment are identified.