Competition experienced and motivated to win, 22 students made up the 2001 BRAIN team. Knowledgeable of the single-entry rule, they were able to focus all their efforts into building a single submarine, thereby eliminating the last-minute combination of the previous year. Although keeping with the removable hull, frame-based vehicle, which allowed for easy transportation and mounting of sensors and peripherals, the team created an entirely new AUV.
The competition, at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, was going well until the finals. The Cornell AUV, was placed a strong 2nd after the morning qualifier run, and was running its 20 minute mission flawlessly, surfacing for 2 minutes after three 3 minute sweeps around the target area. Two commands were intended to bring the vehicle back to the surface at the mission's end: a 10 second, full-up thrust command from the high-level control at 19 minutes, followed 2 minutes later by a 20 second, full thrust up command from a lower-level process. The thrusters performed their job (divers could hear them), but the vehicle never surfaced. Visibility in the competition arena was estimated to be between 9 and 18 inches. Both competition and local Navy divers searched for the sub, but were unsuccessful in finding it. Despite missing the data from this final run, BRAIN placed 5th in the competition.
A month later, Nauticos, an expert in underwater object recovery, used side-scan sonar and located the vehicle, still intact and sealed, in under an hour. After examining the data recorded on the hard drive, the team found that the coveted ping rate and box height information had indeed been logged by the AUV, which would have greatly increased the team's standing.
