Yesaji

Yesaji
Participation Information
Series	S1.5 (This is Fighting Robots) S2 (King of Bots)
Team Information
Team	Blanka Botz
Robot Statistics
Weight	110kg
Weapons	Vertical spinner

Yesaji was a robot from India which competed in This is Fighting Robots and King of Bots II, under two completely different guises. Yesaji was built and entered by renowned Indian robot combat team Blanka Botz.

Versions of Yesaji

Yesaji (Season 1.5)

Top view of Yesaji in This is Fighting Robots

The original version of Yesaji was a black and red, four-wheel drive robot with a low, roughly box-shaped chassis and a lifting/grabbing weapon bearing resemblance to Bite Force from BattleBots. The weapon combined a forked lifting plate with a pair of overhead clamping jaws, which were intended to allow Yesaji to grab and lift opponents. It boasted reasonable ramming power, but its lack of damage output ultimately failed to impress the celebrity captains.

Yesaji (Season 2)

Yesaji with its team captain in King of Bots II

The second version of Yesaji used a more tried-and-tested design, consisting of a four-wheel driven machine armed with a golden disc, spinning vertically at the front of the robot. The robot was also capable of running inverted on two of its wheels, albeit without the use of its weapon. The robot was largely colored white, but was decorated with a brick wall design across its front armor panels.

Etymology

The robot was named after Yesaji Kank, a childhood comrade of Shivaji Maharaj, a warrior king and the founder of the Maratha Empire.

Robot History

This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5)

Yesaji attacks Unlimited Numbers in the opening seconds

Yesaji was not initially selected by the celebrity team captains, and so was required to fight in a preliminary rumble to impress them. There, it fought UK entries Griffin Mk II and Lieutenant Bam, as well as Chinese competitor Unlimited Numbers.

Brief highlights of this battle were shown as part of Episode 2; Yesaji initially began the battle strongly, ramming and getting underneath Unlimited Numbers in the opening moments. However, its contributions to the remainder of the battle were not shown in the main episode, as the rest of the highlights focused on its three opponents. By the end of its rumble, Yesaji was not selected by any of the celebrities and would not progress to the main competition.

King of Bots II (Season 2)

Yesaji received its first fully-broadcasted fight in Season 2, where the new vertical spinner design of Yesaji competed in Episode 3, joining the competition alongside eleven other international entries. It was randomly selected to battle against Emerald to take its place on Tu Ziya's team. Before the battle, Yesaji's team proudly declared that they would not even need their weapon to win this battle, and indeed, the whole battle was fought without Yesaji using its vertical spinner, although Team BlankaBotz confirmed after the fight that this was not intentional.

"I don't even need to spin up my weapon for its full potential!"

— Team BlankaBotz before the fight

Yesaji's wedge pops Emerald into the air

Yesaji receives the only weapon attack of the match

At the start of the fight, Yesaji swerved around the arena, likely attempting to spin up its broken weapon, but eventually charged into Emerald regardless, popping it into the air. Emerald responded by driving straight into Yesaji, and although the collision altered its alignment, this helped it land an accurate hammer blow on the top of Yesaji. However, the force of this swing was enough to break Emerald's hammer mechanism, leaving it in the down position for the remainder of the fight.

Yesaji is pushed into the Grinder by Emerald

Yesaji drives Emerald into the arena saws

Nevertheless, Emerald kept its broken weapon in place and used it to guide Yesaji into the Grinder, and then the corner of the arena with a continuous charge. The two robots separated and danced around each other in the center of the arena, with Yesaji nudging Emerald back, until it managed to hook its wedges under the front of Emerald, and drive it into the arena saws, which visibly buckled the rear armor of Emerald.

The floor flipper turns Yesaji over

Yesaji attempts to self-right using the Grinder

Yesaji then made another charge, but rode up the side of Emerald and knocked its hammer back into place. The two robots engaged in a back-and-forth which resulted in Yesaji driving over the floor flipper, which turned it over. With no working spinner, Yesaji was unsuccessful in its repeated attempts to self-right using the arena wall and the Grinders, while Emerald simply kept its distance and watched Yesaji's struggles.

Yesaji is pinned against the wall

Yesaji is finally righted by the Grinder

Emerald eventually caught the distracted Yesaji at the start of the second minute, and pressed it against the arena wall. Although Yesaji drove away, it was raised slightly by the floor flipper, and Emerald slid Yesaji into the Grinders, which finally righted Yesaji, and allowed it to use its wedges once again, even if the spinner remained inactive.

Yesaji bends Emerald's armor upwards

A final slam takes out Yesaji's drive

The upright Yesaji bulldozed into Emerald and caused Emerald's front shell to completely detach from the robot temporarily, bending up into the air. When Emerald's armor fell back into place, it wedged under Yesaji and used the top of its armor to hold Yesaji in place, for a drive into the wall. Upon their collision with the wall, Emerald's shell bent up again completely, but one the robots separated, it was clear that Yesaji had lost drive on one side of the robot, with smoke also emerging from the machine. Emerald kept its distance and allowed the referee to count out Yesaji, which could not leave its own circumference. Yesaji therefore lost the battle and did not join Tu Ziya's team.

Huang Jian Xiang: "What happened to your weapon? You never really attacked."

Team BlankaBotz: "In testing, everything was going good, but I have to find out what happened, I really don't know. ...I'm really disappointed."

— A sympathetic post-match interview

Results

Wins/Losses

• Wins: 0
• Losses: 2

Series Record

Series	Yesaji Series Record
Season 1	Did not enter
Season 1.5	Not selected by celebrities
Season 2	Entered

Outside King of Bots

Founded in 2011, Blanka Botz Robotics Club is a non-profit organization dedicated to the design, development and manufacturing of robots in various disciplines. The club have enjoyed outstanding success in Indian and international robotics competitions – as of December 2017, they have won 90 trophies in domestic events as well as two titles and 63 medals internationally.

• Taanaji
• Dara (left) and Goho (right)
• Khashaba, with the top panels for Goho and Dara

1/3

Blanka Botz have built several robots for domestic and international competitions, a majority of them being equipped with vertical spinners. Their robots include:

• Taanaji, a 60kg, invertible drum spinner, which won the 2017 Techfest International Robowars competition and finished runner-up in the 2018 FMB (Fighting My Bots) World Cup 60kg tournament.
• Dara, a two-wheeled, 15kg robot armed with a drum spinner, winner of the 2017 FMB World Championship.
• Goho, a four-wheel drive, 15kg robot armed with a large drum spinner.
• Khashaba, a two-wheel drive middleweight armed with a single-toothed vertical drisc.

Eggbeater in battle with Atomic Bomb

The team also competed in fellow Chinese robotics show Clash Bots with Eggbeater, a heavyweight robot armed with an egg beater spinner. It won its first battle against Nuclear and found reasonable success on the show, but was eliminated halfway through the series. It made a late return in Episode 10, as part of Excalibur's three-in-a-row battle challenge, but Eggbeater was not required to fight after Excalibur was immobilized by Bull Devil.

External Links

• Blanka Botz Facebook page