Weekend Yard Sale to Support CVHS Robotics Team

It’s not cheap to build a competition-worthy robot.

This past school year, the ’s Falkon Robotics team spent over $13,000 building a robot and taking it to competitions in San Diego and Long Beach. They placed ninth out of 64 teams at the 2011 Los Angeles Regional FIRST Robotics Competition held in April.

Student engineers imagine, construct, and then operate a robot designed to play a specific game under the rules and guidelines of FIRST, a non-profit organization that sponsors competitions and offers scholarships and college funding opportunities. Each year FIRST sends basic robotic packages and game rules to participating schools. The rest is up to the students and their advisors. They have six weeks from package arrival to competition.

The 2011 game required robots, controlled by students using joysticks, to maneuver a playing area while blocking and racing one another. The robots were tasked with retrieving and then hanging as many plastic hoops as possible on to pegs set above the field during a timed match. The higher a team hung a shape, the more points received. Robots earned extra points by running autonomously through programming and by deploying mini-bots to take on extra obstacles.

Imagine getting your robot to do that.

On Saturday, you can show your support and help the team raise funds by stopping by the Falkon Robotics Yard Sale. Meet Julia, the team's robot, and students from the team while you stock up on bargain books, clothing, furniture, home decor, and of course, electronics. All money raised through the sale goes directly to the CVHS Robotics team.

The sale runs 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at 3144 Pontiac St.

For more information on Falkon robotics, stop by the team’s website, CVRobots.com, or .