I don’t have direct experience with the OTPS, but regardless I can’t recommend using a device outside its specification. If it’s rated to max 66.8A then its usage should be kept within that. If you want to push that boundary you’ll need to contact Outland to discuss, but I expect if it was capable of reliably being used outside the rating then it would just have a higher rating.
“Boosting” would require some form of hybrid power, where there’s some amount of power stored on the ROV to supplement the tether power.
You could potentially add a bank of capacitors to act as a short term battery during brief load spikes, but an “extra push” while diving would be an extended load (not a momentary spike), and would likely need a power supply mixer that uses the tether supply for the base load, and allows an onboard battery to handle the extra load during extended peaks.
We’ve worked on something similar previously, but haven’t yet finished development/validation of it, and it’s not being actively worked on at the moment.
Thanks for the info Eliot.
In my experience with the BlueROV2, 66.8A should be enough for most of the operations we do with the ROV but I think it’ll be good to discuss with Outland and maybe get some answers regarding optional power upgrades for their system.
I also think it’s worth mentioning that as the OTPS reaches or exceeds its max current capability, the output voltage will gradually drop, which naturally reduces the current draw from the thrusters. This allows for a “graceful degradation” of performance when you reach the max. It won’t cut off sharply or impact the piloting experience noticeably.
There’s no option to boost the power, unfortunately! You’d have to add a battery into the system somehow to have a burst capability.
