Optimization of a pumping ship trajectory to clean oil contamination in the open sea

The objective of this article is to find the optimal trajectory of a pumping ship, used to clean oil spots in the open sea, in order to pump the maximum quantity of pollutant on a fixed time period. We use a model previously developed to simulate the evolution of the oil spots concentration due to the coupling of diffusion, transport from the wind, sea currents and pumping process and reaction due to the extraction of oil. The trajectory of the ship is directly modeled by considering a finite number of interpolation points for cubic splines. The optimization problem is solved by using a global optimization algorithm based on the hybridization of a Genetic Algorithm with a Semi-Deterministic Secant Method, to improve the population. Finally, we check the efficiency of our approach by solving several numerical examples considering various shapes of oil spots based on real situations.