Citrus Circuits, the local robotics team made up of Davis high school students, will compete in the FIRST Robotics regional championships at UC Davis this weekend.

The event is free and open to the public on Friday and Saturday in the ARC Pavilion.

The Davis team, composed of students in grades 9-12 from Davis High School and Da Vinci Charter Academy, as well as ninth-graders from Davis junior high schools, is the two-time defending champion at the UCD event and already has qualified for a third straight trip to the world championships in St. Louis next month.

This year’s FIRST competition is called Ultimate Ascent, and features robots throwing Frisbees through goals of various heights. Alliances of three teams have 2 minutes and 15 seconds to score as many points as possible, with higher goals worth more points. At the end of each match, robots earn additional points by climbing a pyramid on the field, earning more points for higher climbs.

Qualifying matches will get under way at 9 a.m. Friday and continue until noon, then resume from 1 to 5:45 p.m. On Saturday, qualifying matches will run from 9 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. with final rounds taking place from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. An awards ceremony is planned after the final rounds.

The Davis team, coached by Da Vinci math teacher Steve Harvey, won the Central Valley Regional Competition in Madera earlier this month, qualifying them for their third trip to the world championships.

FrisbeeRobotW

Citrus Circuits team members Henry Zhang, left, and Dana Natov practice their Frisbee-throwing abilities earlier this year. The team’s robot will compete in this weekend’s FIRST Robotics regional competition at the UC Davis ARC Pavilion before heading to the world championships in St. Louis next month. And while most of the competition involves robots throwing Frisbees through hoops, the last 30 seconds of the competition gives the human robot-builders a chance to do some throwing of their own. Courtesy photo

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