Chinese Farmer an Unlikely Robot Inventor
December 8, 2008
Wu Yulu sits in a wagon pulled by one of his inventions.
If you’ve ever wondered if some people were born to be engineers, look no further than Wu Yulu, a 46-year-old repairman who lives in a small village outside of Beijing. Ever since he was 11 years old, Wu has been building robots out of scrap, simply to see how they work.
One of his first creations was a walking robot that shuffled its legs as it moved along. Since then, Wu has built robots that can play musical instruments, write calligraphy, pour tea, hop, crawl, and light cigarettes.
Despite only having a fifth-grade education, Wu has built more than 25 robots. He considers the robots as his sons, and names them according to the order in which they were invented, starting with Wu No.1, and so on. “They are all my sons, so they must bear my surname,” he said.
Wu’s dedication to his robots has plunged his family – a wife and two teenage sons – into debt, since he spends more than two-thirds of his salary on procuring robot parts. At times, he has been forced to sell some of his creations to pay the bills. Once, the family had to borrow money after one of Wu's inventions caused an electrical fire that burned down their house and almost everything in it.
His wife, Dong Shuyan, said she used to try to persuade him to pay more attention to the family and not spend so much money on his robots. But she has given up on that, realizing that he will never stop building. Once she and her children saved up their money to buy Wu a remote-controlled car, but he broke their hearts when he immediately took it apart to see how it worked.
Wu said that he’s never thought about what his robots might do for him in the long run, but he simply likes to build them.
"The best part is when it's finished – when it's alive," he said.
via: Weird Asia News
Search Archives
Top Stories of the Week
Coming soon.
Exclusive Stories
Coming soon.