Maritime Cruises Mini-Submarines (MCMS), a company based in Greece, builds submersibles capable of carrying humans to the deepest parts of the ocean. A submersible is moved to the location and deployed untethered from a host ship. MCMS now wishes to use their submersible to take tourists on adventures exploring the bottom of the Ionian Sea for sunken shipwrecks. Before they can do this, however, they need to win approval from regulators by developing safety procedures in case of a loss of communication to the host ship and possible mechanical defects including a loss of propulsion of the submersible. In particular, they would like you to develop a model to predict the location of the submersible over time. Unlike in a typical search and rescue on land or on the surface of a sea, the defective submersible could potentially find itself positioned on the sea floor or at some point of?neutral buoyancy?underwater. Its position could further be affected by currents, differing densities in the sea, and/or the geography of the sea floor.
Your tasks are to:
·Locate?- Develop a model(s) that predicts the location of the submersible over time.
What are the uncertainties associated with these predictions?
What information can the submersible periodically send to the host ship to decrease these uncertainties prior to an incident? What kinds of equipment would the submersible need to do so?
·Prepare?- What, if any, additional search equipment would you recommend the company carry on the host ship to deploy if necessary? You may consider different types of equipment but must also consider costs associated with availability, maintenance, readiness, and usage of this equipment. What additional equipment might a rescue vessel need to bring in to assist if necessary?
·Search?- Develop a model that will use information from your location model(s) to recommend initial points of deployment and search patterns for the equipment so as to minimize the time to location of a lost submersible. Determine the probability of finding the submersible as a function of time and accumulated search results.
·Extrapolate?- How might your model be expanded to account for other tourist destinations such as the Caribbean Sea? How will your model change to account for multiple submersibles moving in the same general vicinity? Prepare a report of no more than 25 pages providing the details of your plan. Include a two-page memo of your report addressed to the Greek government to help win approval.
Your PDF solution of no more than 25 total pages should include:
One-page Summary Sheet.
Table of Contents.
Your complete solution.
References list.
AI Use Report (If used does not count toward the 25-page limit.)
Note: There is no specific required minimum page length for a complete MCM submission. You may use up to 25 total pages for all your solution work and any additional information you want to include (for example: drawings, diagrams, calculations, tables). Partial solutions are accepted. We permit the careful use of AI such as ChatGPT, although it is not necessary to create a solution to this problem. If you choose to utilize a generative AI, you must follow the COMAP AI use policy. This will result in an additional AI use report that you must add to the end of your PDF solution file and does not count toward the 25 total page limit for your solution.
Glossary
Submersible: A submersible is an underwater vehicle which needs to be transported and supported by a larger watercraft or platform. This distinguishes submersibles from submarines, which are self-supporting and capable of prolonged independent operation at sea.
Neutral buoyancy occurs when an object's average density is equal to the density of the fluid in which it is immersed, resulting in the buoyant force balancing the force of gravity that would otherwise cause the object to sink (if the body's density is greater than the density of the fluid in which it is immersed) or rise (if it is less). An object that has neutral buoyancy will neither sink nor rise.