Dear forum and dear chair members,
I do not know where to post this message if not here.
I just read the final rules for soccer 2022 which are no surprise.
But then I read the line: “For the 2023 rules, the Soccer Committee intends to limit the voltage to 9.0 V
nominal for both leagues.”
I know there where discussing about this right here and I definitely want to protest to this decision!
Every single soccer team I know uses LiPo or Li-IO batteries which have 7.4V, 11.1V or 14.8V per definition.
So If you want to reduce power from 15V (where I still do not understand the reason), than you have to consider these voltage steps.
If you set a voltage limit to 9V, you push us to using 6 non-recharchable 1.5V batteries or to reduce to 7.4V with a 2S Lipo setting.
This will have only one effect: all the motors and motor drivers the teams kept buying over the last years will be pushed beside to buy some other motors with higher currents to provide the torque needed to run the robot. This will have no effect to reduce speed.
Please rethink this decision!
If - at all - reduce to 12V for all classes. This could possibly bring teams to user their existing stuff, but if you half the voltage of the open2vs2 robots, you will generate plenty of e-waste without any need and without any benefit.
Greetings
Roland