The two thrusters on my ROV will be mounted at the rear of the WTE with the propeller thrust axis 10" apart. I am considering offsetting the axis of each thruster about 30 degree outward, vice parallel to the longitudinal axis of the WTE, in order to get better yawing action with decreased forward/reverse motion, when using a single thruster. I envision many cases for the intended use of my ROV where being able to achieve the desired rotation with a single thruster will save a lot of battery power. The obvious downside is decreased forward thrust, but the upside is increased angular torque when using a single thruster. When I want to rotate the ROV without forward motion I will use both thrusters (one fwd, one rev), but when some forward motion is allowable during the rotation, I can use just one thruster effectively. If I don’t angle the thrusters out, then using a single thruster for rotation will cause a lot of forward motion. I think it boils down to simple trig: a loss of roughly 15% forward thrust, but a gain of 50% (less what is already there from being mounted off the centerline axis) perpendicular thrust. Am I thinking correctly on this? I could do the math but I figure some of you can intuitively deduce this out.
Thanks,
Richard