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Farmer Builds Robot ArmyComments:106
Posted by
samzenpus
on Thu Nov 27, 2008 06:57 AM
from the nobody-panic dept.
from the nobody-panic dept.
46-year-old Wu Yulu has only a basic school education but has managed to build himself 26 robots from scrap materials over the past 30 years. At first his creations were simple and could barely shuffle along by themselves. The robots got more complex as time passed, and eventually he built ones capable of climbing walls, serving water, lighting cigarettes, playing musical instruments and writing calligraphy. "When I was 11, one day I was sitting on the doorstep, and while watching villagers passing by I suddenly came up with the idea of building a machine that walks like a man," he told the Beijing Times.
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Greetings (Score:2, Funny)
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yikes! (Score:2)
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lol (Score:5, Funny)
"Wu, who lives near Beijing, sees all the robots as his sons, "
and later on in the article
"Wu says he has to sell off some of his robot collection after plunging his family into debt "
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Hey, if it's good enough for Joseph, it's good enough for Wu12.
Re:lol (Score:4, Insightful)
One would think that a large company would hire this man to build robots even if those robots are only for advertising purposes. The fellow has talent and deserves to make a decent living and the world of robotics just might learn a few things from him as well.
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NO university (Score:3, Informative)
throughout history, youll find that a pathetically small percentage of great inventors have been through scholastic education.
this person should be given a lab, and a few good technical assistants. just like 19th century inventors had.
Woo woo (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Woo woo (Score:5, Insightful)
This is amongst the greatest things that I have seen till now.
Unbelievable - woo no 25 and the water carrying robots - are really unbelievable.
I am really sad for his wasted talent - an amazing talent born at the wrong place and time.
Is it possible for us to help him out someway?
P.S : This shouldnt be posted in idle.
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I know this is offtopic, but isn't it incredible that there have been articles showing up in Idle that really shouldn't be in Idle? /.'s way of trying to make sure we don't disable Idle from showing up on the front page.
Perhaps this is
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Perhaps this is /.'s way of trying to make sure we don't disable Idle from showing up on the front page.
Actually, I think this might be targeted at people who feel Slashdot no longer occupies a legit place between hardcore tech sites and fluffy news aggregation sites (Digg?).
By moving the interesting but tabloidesque stories to Idle the rest of the site can get more tech without depriving readers of their light coffee break reading.
Like it or not, this story is something that readers are likely to see in th
SHOULDNT HAVE BEEN POSTED IN IDLE (Score:2)
move this to main from idle.
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Aww. Poor guy. His wife is a total bitch.
Silly (Score:4, Funny)
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If only they would arrest you for all your link jacked, copyrighted images and text be damned, submissions.
Hats off (Score:5, Insightful)
Clearly you are not a robotics expert! (Score:3, Insightful)
Look at the picture. His Rickshaw-bot is mechanical and he has a steering wheel.
It's not a complex task he has solved there. Stability is already present (2 wheels at the back, two legs at the front),
Sensors? Closed-loop feedback?
Lol. more like a few electric motors and some gears.
Re:Clearly you are not a robotics expert! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Clearly you are not a robotics expert! (Score:5, Insightful)
Building a walking robot, the western way :
1) Think it would be cool to have a walking robot 2) Thinking about a method to build a walking robot 3) Studying the physics behind the mechanism of a walking robot. 4) Call this a new field of science : "Walking mechanics". 5) Publish some papers about "Walking mechanics" 6) Make a conference with the experts of "Walking mechanics". 7) Try to make it popular to the public so you get fund. It's called vulgarisation. 8) Discover that, in order to further develop "Walking mechanics", you have to develop "Walking automation". 9) Repeat steps 4 t 8 for Walking automation 10) Repeat step 4 to 8 for "Walking sensors" 11) Try to generalize 12) Repeat step 4 to 8 for "Automation of movable devices" 13) repeat step 4 to 8 for "Transfer mathematics" 14) Abstract all your classes and use design patterns 15) Wait... forget 14, it's part of something else 16) Forget about robots and develop science for the sake of science 17) Get asked by a young child about a walking robot 18) Explain to the public/young child how the development of your "Field quantum mathematic" theory could allow us to have walking robots as soon as 2045
No building a walking robot, the Wu's way :
1) Think it would be cool to have a walking robot 2) Put together a few electric motors and some gears 3) Paint your walking robot according to your preference 4) Enjoy ...
So obviously, his robot sucks, the guy doesn't know nothing about sensors, feedback loop.
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No, this guy's robot collection is damn cool, sorry if I gave the impression I wasn't impressed!
What I wasn't impressed by was the lack of insight of the post I replied to. He's not some sort of robotics Professor, he's a guy that's built some ace robots out of scrap.
I love these sorts of crackpots, but let's not pretend he's done any cutting edge engineering here, 'kay?
Re:Clearly you are not a robotics expert! (Score:5, Insightful)
He has an important characteristic of a great inventor though. He sees an invention shaped hole in the universe, and cannot resist the compulsion to twist metal into a shape that will fill it.
In other circumstances, he'd be an engineer or an artist. He is an artist. I won't be surprised if collectors and museums don't end up spending big bucks for a genuine "Wu".
you are a TOTAL moron. or a fool. or ignorant. (Score:2)
What I wasn't impressed by was the lack of insight of the post I replied to. He's not some sort of robotics Professor, he's a guy that's built some ace robots out of scrap.
I love these sorts of crackpots, but let's not pretend he's done any cutting edge engineering here, 'kay?
dear moron,
if you had ANY knowledge of history of science, you would have known that with a few exceptions, ALL of the biggest scientists and inventors of the past are the sort of person THAT guy is.
you just called a lot of people ranging from faraday to tesla crackpots.
are you sure slashdot is the right place for you ?
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No building a walking robot, the Wu's way :
1) Think it would be cool to have a walking robot 2) Put together a few electric motors and some gears 3) Paint your walking robot according to your preference 4) Enjoy ...
You left out the step where he burns down the house and gets his surprisingly attractive (relatively so) wife super-pissed at him.
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So true. Hit citeseer and you will find thousands of papers on robot walking, including many PhD theses. For some reason, the academic way seems to be to carry out almost identical research again, and again, and again, rather than actually trying to build the damn thing. Let's be clear, Wu's walking robot isn't going to set the world on fire, but just by building a real robot that can actually walk he's already got further than the robotics departments of many of the world's leading universities.
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Sure, but mechanical ingenuity is what makes robotics fun. The really technologically advanced aspects of robotics, like machine vision, could be done entirely in simulation.
It'd be cool to have him working for a year as a visiting scholar or artist in residence at an engineering school.
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Just because he's a farmer doesn't mean he's an idiot. Some farmers are quite good at fixing machinery/farm equipment. Plus, it's not like he's a farmer in the middle of nowhere. He can and probably did ask someone for help. Most hobbyists will ask for help if they get stuck somewhere. That being
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Well, I'll give it to him, he's done a lot of fiddling. It is a shame, with a little study he might have done a lot more.
It is obvious from his work that this man is skilled in basic metal work, but most of his robots are enlarged versions of their child toy equivalents. For example, the rickshaw "robot" doesn't balance, because it is rigidly welded to the rickshaw, meaning that it is more of a four wheeled vehicle where the front two wheels have been replaced by legs. So during its most unstable moments
ALL that talk and excuse me, (Score:2)
please enlighten us.
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And more OT, WTF is this 40 x 25 character text box in Idle? Did slashcode just jump back in time to 1970?
No, something IS going on but you have no idea (Score:3, Insightful)
but clearly, you dont have either, and dont understand shit about them when you see them.
Old joke (Score:5, Funny)
-Who is building the robots?
-Wu is.
-That's what I asked.
-Wu is building the robots.
-Yeah, who is building the robots?
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You missed the part where his neighbor Yu ordered one.
"Wu is building the robot Yu asked him to."
"I didn't ask him."
"No, Yu did."
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Old news is good news (Score:2)
China Daily's report is dated 2006.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-07/07/content_636244.htm [chinadaily.com.cn]
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If he considers them to be like sons ... (Score:5, Funny)
See, it's funny, because his robots go clang, and
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Oh ho ho, that makes it sound as if we're groaning with you. I, for one, am sharpening my pitchfork.
Not Robots (Score:4, Insightful)
just like machines of (Score:2)
Edumacation (Score:3, Insightful)
Imagine what this guy could have done if he had a decent education.
Luckily (Score:2)
He hasn't built himself any beautifful robot daughters...
Farmer:... You can sleep in the barn. Just don't be a-touchin' my three beautiful robot daughters. Y'hear?
Fry: Robot daughters?
[He points to his robot daughters outside the house.]
Farmer: This here is Lulabelle 7.
Lulabelle 7: Yoo-hoo!
Farmer: Daisy-Mae 128K.
Daisy-Mae 128K: Yoo-hoo!
Farmer: And the Crushinator.
[The Crushinator is a huge pink thing with tracks instead of legs.]
Crushinator: (mechanical voice) Yoo-hoo.
Fry: Whoa!
Racist Roboticist (Score:3, Funny)
If an American farmer made a robot slave dressed in clearly traditional Chinese farmer clothes to pull them on a rickshaw, they'd be denounced as a racist.
I therefore denounce this Chinese farmer as a racist for doing exactly that with a White American looking robot.
Wikipedia page (Score:2, Interesting)
This guy deserves some recognition. I just made this Wikipedia page for him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_yulu
Please help build up the info there if you know more. I especially need help getting some Chinese (Mandarin) characters for his name, village name, etc.
Thanks!
What is a "robot" anyway? (Score:2)
At car plants there are machines that pick up windshields with suction cups and then put them in the front of cars. Are these robots?
To my mind, the 'self-driving cars' you see in events like the DARPA Grand Challenge are robots, but a mechanical gadget, while cool and clever bits of engineering are NOT rob