O.K. Now my brief two cents of input.
1) GPS coordinates and compass bearing plus Hint 1 - are they re-introducing the IR tracking beacons?
The GPS location may not be the Statue of John Copley, but lets follow that train of thought for a moment.
2) He is standing on a pedestal in the middle of an open area. Maybe we can expect a pedestal in the middle of the playing field.
3) Looking up John S Copley in Wikipedia - one can find his paintings. For the late 1700s the colors are stunningly brilliant. I expect illuminated targets of several colors.
4) Reading Wikipedia, I followed the link "The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782" and read about that. It appears the British developed the innovative "hot potato" to destroy the barriers. I don't know about any burning hot objects, but "hot potato" would be a good contest name. (Have a game piece the opposing team(s) don't want)
5) I think Hint 1 is pretty much self contained. FRC will allow teams to use a TV remote along with their playstation controller. The one exception would be the use of "standard" IR signals as part of the playing field. These "standard" signals would match a particular remote control included in everyone's kits. Thus teams could train their bots to the standard playing field signals.
6)Too bad the compass bearings aren't pointing to McDonalds and BurgerKing The contest would be flame broiled vs. fried.
7) I much like the idea of December 7th 1900 being the discovery of black body radiation. That seems to fit with the IR controller.
8) I doubt water will ever be used since owners of large open buildings rarely like the idea of water running around their floors as teams debug their bot's water handling capabilities. Water also wreaks havoc with electronic circuits.
EJ
