In little more than two weeks, the team constructed a full-size wooden model of "The Rack," the scoring structure on which their robot will have to place inflatable tubes.	Senior team members Fritz Langford and Kelly Casteel plow ahead with work on the robot.

The game is played with two "alliances" of three robots each. Alliances score points by placing colored inner tubes on a nearly 10 foot tall octagonal structure called "The Rack" in rows of one or more. A team’s points increases exponentially with the length of the rows, starting at two points for a row of one and capping out at 256 points for a row of eight. The team has recently finished constructing a modified version of “The Rack” to practice on.

During the last 15 seconds of the match, alliances have the option of driving their robots back to their end of the field and having them lift one another off the ground. Alliances earn 15 points for each robot that is more than 4 inches off the ground and 30 points for each robot that is more than 12 inches off the ground at the end of the match.

This year, the George Mason team has opted to focus on manipulating the inner tubes rather than lifting other robots. They have already developed a holonomic drive train, a unique arrangement of wheels that allows the robot to move in any direction as well as rotate about an axis. This will allow the robot to easily dodge defenders in addition to making fine adjustments while hanging inner tubes. This design depends on the use of special wheels called "omni wheels" that have rollers which allow them to turn in one direction around an axle and be easily pushed in any other direction. The driving code was nearly finalized this weekend, after a number of failed attempts to compensate for biases and inconsistencies in the speed controllers and motors. One such attempt resulted in the robot spiraling wildly out of control and destroying a serial cable. With those mistakes behind them, the team feels impressed with their work and is optimistic about the possibilities for their innovative driving system. 

Designs for the arm and grabber are also progressing forward. Team members and mentors have been working on prototypes and drawings for all types of telescoping arms and grabbers. The team even invited a salesman from Advanced Pneumatics, a company that sells vacuum suction cups and other pneumatic equipment, to talk to the team about the possibility of lifting the inner tubes with suction. But despite the impressive demonstration, the team has instead opted to design a mechanical grabber to get the rings off the floor and hold onto them long enough to place them on “The Rack.”

In addition to competing in the Chesapeake Regional at the Naval Academy from March 15-17, the team also plans to attend the championship event in Atlanta from April 12-14.