I might have to eat my Red Sox hat next year, but FIRST will never force us to use the IR sensors.
In this year's game the IR beacon was used to show where a stationary object was. A taped line was also supplied to help find the stationary object. Because it's a stationary object you could count wheel revolutions or even use dead reckoning.
I think what Dave was eluding to was a situation where it's the only sensor you could use. For instance, if the mobile goal was randomly placed on your side of the field. To show robots where the mobile goal is, an IR beacon could be installed on the mobile goal.
That's my $0.02 on the issue
