[JBotAlan]

I'm making two assumptions here, and with the logic to back them up, here they are:

-This isn't going on the robot. The speak of powering it from a bench supply or AA batteries proves that.

-The robots will not be emitting IR. Think of the mess debugging that would be. The judges would all have to have cameras fixed on each robot to make sure nobody was jamming the signal for everyone.

My guess:
I'm going for some kind of human player controllable field item. The HP gets a remote, points it at the field item and presses a button. The goal may change colors, but that's about all. It won't move, as that would be terrible for teams to construct, and awful to maintain during a match. I think it has to do with a vision target, as most teams have not figured out tracking yet, and FIRST wants us to.

Hmmm...I don't know...
Whatever it is, it looks fun!
JBot (counting down the days...)

P.S. I would like to think that this device will be mounted on the robot...it would be amazing to get signals from the field. Period switches, or different goals...hmm...I may end up being totally wrong all around. Whatev, but my sleep is totally gone now.