By Mary O’KEEFE

It is time again for the Crescenta Valley High School Falkons 589 robotics team to start working on their robot for the FIRST [For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology] competition. The CVHS team got its FIRST competition assignment on Jan. 4 and now the clock is ticking as they have six weeks to build their robot.

Each year robot teams from all over the world wait to hear what their robot’s new game ¬– i.e., challenge – will be. This year it is called Infinite Recharge. This competition is part of the 2020 FIRST season titled FIRST Rise – Powered by Star Wars: Force for Change. FIRST teamed up with Lucasfilm and Disney to devise the challenge.

“As part of the Star Wars: Force for Change philanthropic initiative to inspire the next generation of heroes and innovators, creating a place where collaboration and collective wisdom can elevate new ideas and foster growth, FIRST Rise empowers FIRST participants to explore the future of cities and architecture, building communities filled with inspiration, creativity and, – most importantly – hope,” states the FIRST website.

“What you need to do is take these foam balls, called power cells, and put them into certain goals,” explained Cade Lipscomb, a senior on Falkons 589. “That’s how you get points.”

The game includes several components, from getting the power cells into a specific area to climbing the robot.

“One of the most difficult things is climbing,” Lipscomb said. “You have to climb a bar that looks a little like a coat hanger, called the switch, and you have to get the robot level with other robots … so it’s getting your 125-ish pound robot up about a foot in the air, which is a difficult task.”

In addition to having the robot climb, which has been done in several other games, the robot that climbs now has to be level with the other robots in an alliance.

In the past, the game was played by pitting three teams against three other teams. This year it is two alliances on each team. The teams are chosen at random, therefore no team knows who they will be aligned with. 

“Since you don’t know who you are paired with you need really good communication skills,” Lipscomb said.

“I think every year [there is] some specific feature of the game that seems to set some teams apart,” said Adam Komjathy a senior on 589. “Last year it was the climbing.”

Last year the robot had to climb onto a platform.

“There are so many different parts to this year’s game,” he added.

Climbing is something 589 has done successfully so Komjathy is pretty sure the team will be able to design some type of climbing robot; however, there is another part of the game that the team has not built.

“Something the team has never done before is to have some type of mechanism that can shoot [into a goal],” he said.

Part of the game this year will have the robot shoot the power cells into a high goal then place it into a low goal. Basically the team needs to create a robot that thinks, and hopefully shoots, like Michael Jordan – and they have six weeks to design, create and build the robot.

There will also be Star Wars sound effects that can be programmed into the robots, including R2-D2 beeps.

The Falkons 589 team is powered by students from CVHS, and supported by adult mentors. It is self-financed and donations are needed to build the robot and pay traveling expenses and application fees for the competitions. To donate, visit cvrobots.com or send donations to CVHS, Attn: Team 589, 2900 Community Ave., La Crescenta, CA 91214.

  Mary Okeefe