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Canfield Circuit Birds ready to fly
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Members and mentors of the Canfield High School FIRST Robotics Team 4601, also known as Canfield Circuit Birds, who worked on this year’s robot for the FIRST robotics competition titled FIRST Stronghold, in which they will compete March 17-19, are, from left, Erik Weimer, Brandon Stratton, Bobby Hudock, mentor Fred Cutrer, mentor Mike Crescimanno, Dean Cutrer, Donald Cutrer and Elijah Mt. Castle.
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Neighbors | Abby Slanker.Members of the Canfield High School FIRST Robotics Team 4601, also known as Canfield Circuit Birds, are preparing for the FIRST robotics competition March 17-19. Team members include, from left, Brandon Stratton, Bobby Hudock, Elijah Mt. Castle, Donald Cutrer and Erik Weimer.
By ABBY SLANKER
The Canfield High School FIRST Robotics Team 4601, also known as Canfield Circuit Birds, is hard at work preparing for this year’s competition. The team, which consists of 23 students from all grade levels, will travel to the FIRST robotics competition in Cleveland, March 17-19.
The team has worked daily in their ‘nest’ at Canfield High School, including weekends and snow days, sometimes working late into the night. The rules of the contest require the team to finish and pack up their robot before traveling to the competition, as they are given a strict six-week schedule to complete their build.
Each team is given a kit of parts made up of motors, batteries, a control system, a PC and a mix of automation components – and only limited instructions.
The name of the game this year at the FIRST robotics competition is FIRST Stronghold. The theme is medieval kingdom, with teams’ robots having to breach defenses and capture the tower by shooting 10-inch foam dodge balls through 8-feet high goals and conquering a variety obstacles on the terrain which are in their way. Disney Imagineers helped design the medieval kingdom for the competition.
Students will ‘drive’ the robot, which they have named Shadow, with video game controllers and joy sticks and have installed a camera to help ‘see’ where the robot is going and what type of obstacle it is facing.
“We put mountain boarding tires on our robot, which we think will help it get over the tough medieval terrain to get to the castle. We can view a bunch of different ideas from different groups online about the design of our robot, so we can combine those ideas with our own design ideas, like the tires. We are really hoping to make it to the championship in this competition,” said team member Bobby Hudock.
Canfield High School engineering graphics teacher Don Crum serves as the team’s advisor, with Dr. Mike Crescimanno and Fred Cutrer serving as mentors.
“We really appreciate our parent volunteers. We could not do this without them. This program would not survive without parent involvement and other volunteers. It takes everyone, including students, parents and the community, to make this program successful and it has been very successful with everyone working together,” said Mary Crescimanno, Circuit Birds board member.
For more information on the Canfield Circuit Birds or the FIRST robotics competitions, visit www.facebook.com/team4601/ or usfirst.org.