[Jon Stratis]

The biggest problem it has is not getting around IR interference - other remotes can make it unresponsive to your remote. While this is clearly something you'd want them to solve, it does bring up some pretty important real life considerations. When dealing with something like the Mars Rover, NASA fully expected to have continuous contact with it, but they couldn't plan on it. So they have to have a certain amount of autonomy built in in case something goes wrong with the communications. If, for example, the rover landed and broke it's modem, NASA couldn't have communicated at all. But the rover could still go around and collect data and store it internally, which NASA could retrieve at a later time. Another great example might be a remote deep see submersible. These are things that are generally controlled from a joystick on a boat, but do have certain programming if the communications drops - like return to the surface.

Regardless, when dealing with remote systems you ALWAYS have to plan for the probability of your communications dropping out at some point. In that regard, the IR boards are perfect for use in the competition.