- Title: CHINA: Chinese farmer robot inventor risks all for his art
- Date: 10th January 2009
- Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (JANUARY 8, 2008) (REUTERS) FARMER INVENTOR WU YULU RIDING HIS ROBOT "WU'S 32ND SON" ON TRACK PAST TREES AND STREET LAMP ROBOT'S FACE AS IT WALKS ROBOT'S FEET AS IT WALKS ROBOT STRUGGLING TO CLIMB SLOPE VARIOUS OF WU'S BACK AS HE RIDES ROBOT ROBOT STANDING IN WU'S COURTYARD WU BRINGING ROBOTS OUT OF HIS STUDIO AND LAYING THEM OUT IN COURTYARD RED-HAIRED DANC
- Embargoed: 25th January 2009 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: China
- Country: China
- Topics: Science / Technology,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVA7GP45W39UPOXEE082AONDHKQT
- Story Text: Robot inventor Wu Yulu, a self-taught Chinese farmer who accidentally burnt down his house and plunged his family into debt in the name of his art, is finally getting hard-earned recognition.
In a rural village an hour from Beijing lives an unlikely inventor.
Forty-eight-year-old Wu Yulu who has spent his whole life in Mawu village and never had a secondary education, last year created his 32nd, fully-operational robot.
The aptly-named "Wu's 32nd son", which was several years in the making, is Wu's "piece de resistance" -- a walking, talking, rickshaw-pulling robot that can take him out to run errands in the village, provided he's not in a hurry.
As it clunks along it announces proudly in rhythmic, semi-rhyming Mandarin, "I'm a rickshaw pulling robot. Wu Yulu is my Dad, I take him out about town" through a small speaker encased in its head.
Wu's courtyard home is littered with contraptions at different stages of development that do everything from pouring tea to dancing to cleaning windows.
After so much love and dedication, Wu's robots are more than family to him.
"Now you could say I love my robots more dearly than my own sons," said Wu.
A farmer by birth, Wu's robot obsession started young. But his passion only culminated in 1986, when he created his first fully-functioning robot -- a simple walking contraption made of wire and cogs.
The tiny but determined "Son of Wu No. 3" was his first climbing robot, which uses its magnetic feet to scale vertical metal surfaces.
Financial restrictions meant that his early robots were made almost entirely from foraged scrap, but as his ambition grew, so too did his requirements, and the cost.
To fund the hobby, Wu borrowed large sums of money from reluctant friends and relatives, who said he should stop wasting time and stick to farming.
But after increased media attention both inside and outside of China and a host of awards, Wu's luck has changed and he's managed to make much of it back.
He now works with various universities and companies developing robotics, has travelled China to show his creations and has been decreed "China's cleverest farmer-inventor" in a national competition organised by Hunan Television station.
"After that the neighbours have all made a 180 degree turn from not understanding to admiring me," he said proudly.
According to Wu, his debt peaked at around 90,000 Yuan ($13,168 U.S.
dollars), having borrowed around 50,000 Yuan ($7,315 U.S. Dollars) to reconstruct his house after accidentally burning it to the ground while working on one of his projects.
But the cost wasn't just financial. He also incurred a series of injuries after spraying himself with battery acid and burning his face and chest in an explosion that put him in hospital.
His long-suffering wife, Dong Shuyan, was at her wit's end, and at one point had decided to divorce him and take her sons with her, but in the end she stood by her man.
"In the past he destroyed the house and we had no money, and at the time I really was going to leave. He spent so much money, but now it hasn't been wasted and we've got some back. Plus now he's got a reputation, so in fact I feel quite proud as well," said Dong.
Wu, who says he never set out to make money, is now in discussion with companies on how to make his robots marketable, one idea being to hire out his rickshaw robots for weddings.
But for now, he stands as proof that determination and a lot of imagination can go a long way.
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