By JIM MEYER – Staff writer
A student competition at Franklin Area Junior/Senior High School that showcased youthful technical ingenuity while providing perspective on the future.
William Robinson III tightens a part while his father, William Robinson Jr., in center, tries to help him and teammate Tyler Wood adjust the wheels. (By Richard Sayer)
The competition Friday – “Clash at the Castle” – involved 20 teams from Pennsylvania and West Virginia whose student-constructed robots competed by stacking cones and moving them to designated areas. A Franklin High School VEX Robotics team became one of two tournament champions.
Along with their robot Bob, the 814K team included junior Martin Bastecki and freshmen Karl Kestner, Garrett Kingdom and Douglas Songer.
Each match was two minutes long with the first 15 seconds dedicated to the robots running autonomous programs (no operator driving).
The controls held by the operators resembled video game controls. However, it was clear the robots didn’t always cooperate as easily as a video game, as demonstrated by Franklin senior Trevor Wood trying to fix the drive train on his team’s robot, Johnny Cash – the name derived from Johnny 5 of the movie “Short Circuit”.
“When we started, it was Johnny 6.0,” Wood said. “Then we kept upgrading. Now it’s Johnny Cash, because he has parts from all the previous Johnnies.”
Wood said other robots made by the Franklin group kept with the theme, sporting the names John Wayne and John Deere.
Wood was part of the 814F team, which included senior Adam Taylor, sophomore David Ferraro, junior Sam Burchfield and freshman Tyler Walkowski.
The 814H team was composed of senior Kiaran Rios, junior William Robinson and sophomores Christopher Bullard and Tyler Wood (Trevor Wood’s brother). Their robot was called The Dragon.
Between matches, Robinson worked on repairing a lift mechanism on The Dragon and explained how Franklin’s teams worked together in the competition.
“For the purposes of the tournament, we’re all competing against each other, but we all help each other out,” Robinson said as the teams shared tools and gave each other pointers on repairs.
Trevor Wood said they had chosen the letters FHSK to stand for Franklin High School Knights.
Franklin’s robotics team developed out of a gifted class project last year led by Timothy Heffernan, who teaches in the gifted program and social studies.
The robotics team is now open to all students, said Pamela Dye, Franklin Area School District superintendent.
“He came with an idea and I said absolutely,” Dye said.
