Starke County family reflects on Battle Bots experience
The Yankauskas family from Knox had a chance to show the world their love for robotics last year when they participated in Battle Bots, a show that combines creation and competition. Mother and team-member Cynthia Yankauskas recently provided some insight about the opportunity.
“Competing in combat robotics competitions has taken us across the country along the east and west coasts, including the
southern borders, to large and small cities meeting new people and winning many competitions along the way.” She shared, “It has been exhilarating learning and touring the country together as a family!”
The family’s robotics team consists of Cynthia, her husband Dominic, and their children; 9th grader Bryce, 6th grader Hunter, and 3rd grader Onika. The family team name is ‘Team Already Broke’, which Cynthia coined more than 10 years ago when the family began circle track racing. She noted that it’s a play on words due to the number of hobbies they enjoy doing together.
The interest in robotics is not a new phenomena. Cynthia explained, “Dominic had an intense interest in the way things worked and a passion for anything mechanical that has only grown since he was a child. The kids became interested in pursuing robotics while watching Battlebots Season 7 (Season 2 of the reboot).” In order to see things first hand, they checked out Motorama’s Robot Conflict in 2018, a big competition hosted at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center in Harrisburg.
Cynthia touched on some of the family’s initial creations, “The first couple of builds were plywood prototypes of two 30-pound pneumatic bots for proof of concept. Three onepound bots were constructed for the team’s first competition within the span of building the prototypes.”
The family got involved with Battle Bots through Andrew Burghgraef, a member of Team Lucky and a family friend who was made through attending competitions. Burghgraef arranged for Dominic to be the driver for Team Gemini in 2019. Cynthia noted, “He saw Dominic’s skills and dedication and thought they were a perfect match for all that Battle Bots requires.”
Team Gemini, which both Dominc and Hunter served on, and the family’s group Team Already Broke were featured in the 2020 season of Battle Bots. Cynthia said filming took place in Long Beach, California. It was originally scheduled to occur in April but was pushed back to October due to California’s COVID-19 restrictions. She noted that the COVID-19 restrictions also put a damper on developing any new friendships. However, they’d already made some lasting connections through past competitions. “We have been acquainted with or known almost everyone from prior competitions but social distancing made meeting a few others somewhat difficult for the 2020 season.”
As far as major takeaway go, Cynthia said filming was an eye-opening experience, “Being part of making reality TV is a lot different from watching TV,” she explained, “Many things go on behind the scenes that change your perspective of the entertainment industry as a whole.
Since filming has wrapped, the Yankauskas family has continued to build bots and compete with them. Cynthia said that after returning home in October 2020, they started building for a different weight class of three-pound bots called beetle-weights.
On March 20 this year, they competed in their first non-televised competition in Connecticut at the Norwalk Havoc Robot League (NHRL). Cynthia explained that, aside from the Battle Bots experience, the last completion prior to this one was at Motorama in February of 2020. She explained that the family had various robots competing in NHRL, “Dominic won 1st place with his thirty-pound (featherweight) bot ‘Litter Box’. He also had a father-son multi-bot with Bryce, Stop Hitting Yourself (SHY), that won 2nd place in the thirty-pound division.” Cynthia continued, “Onika placed 9th with Dark Princess and Hunter placed 13th with his both Judge’s Dream, both three (beetle-weights), out of 70 bots competing Saturday.”
She noted that they may choose to compete in Battle Bots again but it will take some consideration due to the amount of commitment, “There may be potential in the future to compete with 250 lb bots (heavy-weights) again.” She added, “it is a substantial financial decision to make as a family and dedicate that much time to filming, using your whole year’s vacation at one time, let along the significant amount of build time, which can be months, that it takes leading up to the event.”
Whether or not they decide to take on the televised competitions again Cynthia says the experience and the process surrounding it has been an extremely valuable. She stated that her children have gained a plethora of skills including, machining, manufacturing design, basic physics, metallurgy, problem-solving skills, team building, CAD, CAM, and much more.
You can find more details about Team Already Broke and Team Gemini at https://battlebots.com/2020-season-robots/.