[darist]

Remember the purpose of the minibot rules, and as mentioned several times during the kickoff speeches: they want us to work together with FTC teams to create the minibots.

I agree the wording needs some clarification, but
I think the rule is intended to force us to include the battery (the heaviest part in that list of permitted parts) even if you don't use it for electric power.

If you design a minibot without a battery or any other FTC stuff (e.g. a light spring thingy that just jumps to the top of the tower), you wouldn't need to get together with an FTC team and you would have a weight advantage over any team that decided to build a little robot FTC-style.

We'll have to wait and see when we get an official clarification. I hope I'm wrong.