Page 14: of Marine Technology Magazine (November 2025)

LANDER LAB #16

BATTERY POWER MANAGEMENT

AND CONTROL

By Kevin Hardy, MTR Columnist, President, Global Ocean Design LLC he management of DC power is one of the basic Marine Technology Reporter, March/April 2024). Onboard challenges in designing an autonomous ocean lander. circuits may require different voltages. Critical function cir-

We can go pretty far down the rabbit hole with this cuits, such as the release, should be powered by a “sacred” topic. This article is intended to share a few thoughts battery pack, not shared with anything that might inadvertent-

T for the readers’ consideration. ly deplete it.

We start with a premise. A lever without a fulcrum is just a Charging batteries can be done in one of several ways, in- stick. A fulcrum without a lever is just a door stop. Bring both cluding: 1) opening the housing and charging, 2) charging together and you have a simple machine. Similarly, a sensor or through the end cap, or 3) external batteries that are swapped microcontroller without an ampli