Hello,
I know this request might seem absurd, since there are almost no teams in the soccer open category struggling with the weight limit. But with the current weight limit it limits the robustness of the robots. Since swapping 3d printed chassis for aluminum one could push robots over the limit. This pushes the teams into a pricy carbon fiber alternative. Also, with a bigger weight limit it could create space for a bigger and heavier solenoid which would make most of the kickers stronger (since right now most of the soccer open kickers are nowhere near the legal limit stated by the rules).
I don’t think heavier/more robust robots give somebody a huge advantage except letting the team have fewer mechanical problems (less 3d printed parts breaking, which in Eindhoven most of the teams faced some of those issues). Since in the current state of the game there is a lot of robot crashes due to a hard localization of the enemy robots and its essential to build your robot to be able to withstand those impacts/crashes.
Also, in the last years there have appeared a lots of companies able to make your desired parts out of metals for you at a reasonable price.
With this change i think it could allow the teams to learn new skills with metal machining and hopefully allow for the more talented hardware guys with brutal designs shine (designs with multiple solenoids/dribblers or other things i cant even imagine right now).
Thanks for understanding and would like to know your opinion on this topic
Tomas
I like this idea as well, I thing that for weight limit engineering challenges we already have lightweight and we could see some new cool stuff happening.
But also it must be set so you will not create 100kg barrier that non of the robots could move. So I thing moving it from 2200 g to 5000g should be sufficient for any crazy design while still allowing opponent robot to move it.
Why 5kg? because when you fill whole volume of robot with aluminum it would weight around 50kg and 1/10 of that seams like maximum needed for anyone.
Hello,
The idea would have to be reconsidered in all its facets.
On the one hand, it would be much more difficult for a lighter robot to counter-push a much heavier one because of less friction force on the field with its wheels. Usually, beginner teams do not utilize the whole weight limit range. This is the downside for beginners.
But for high-level teams, it is also very clear that heavier robots require more energy in their batteries and acceleration force to react to fast and dynamic gameplay. That would force teams to decide the optimum point of weight in comparison to the reaction possibilities.
In my opinion, raising the limit to 5 kg would lead to a clash of masses and not improve overall gameplay. But as @kovact mentioned, a slight raise to maybe 2.5–3 kg or so could give teams more freedom in designing their hardware.
However, I would like to hear and exchange more opinions on that topic because a false decision could also kill all soccer open games.
Greetings from Germany
Hello,
In my opinion rising the weight limit to 5kg could end up too extreme as you are saying mark. Since by more than doubling the weight limit its hard to say where the gameplay would be with a new 5kg robots against some lighter 1,5kg old ones.
But one thing to take into consideration is that with last year’s rules and a voltage increase there haven’t been any weight limit compensations. Since with higher voltage limit teams can implement bigger batteries for achieving higher voltages and stronger (hence bigger) motors. Both changes mean a drastic increase in weight (I would say that batteries and motors are the heaviest parts of the robot).
But I would be open to the 2.5-3kg weight increase.
The weight has not been the main difference between LWL and OL in a long time. So I would like to open up the thinking into the topic of making the limit the same for both leagues as we rename them. I agree with the weight-related traction and pushing concern and would add that we are happythat robots ripping the carpets has become somewhat rare and I fear that may also increase with more power going through wheels.
An increase of the weight limit of OL has been discussed at RCJ 2024 in Eindhoven as well as on the forum but we had not gone forward with it because the weight of most OL robots was far away from 2200g.
Teams have asked again on Discord because they now have concrete designs that the weight limit would be a problem for. So after discussing whether this would cause any issues we came to the conclusion that the risk is low enough that we can enable whatever new design that might be forthcoming because most teams are already not constrained by the limit (In Eindhoven the average robot weight was ~600g below the limit).
Hi,
I love that the committee decided to go through with this change. Personally i can’t wait to see a design which is taking an advantage of this rule to the fullest.
Best regards
Tomas