Chinese farmer and his robots

I found this article today and found it fascinating. A Chinese farmer has been building robots out of scrap metal. I think he has achieved something amazing and I'm now off to root around in my garage......... er, perhaps not

www.dailymail.co.uk...

The sight of a farmer being pulled along in a cart by a walking robot would stop most people in their tracks. But Mr Wu Yulu's neighbours on the outskirts of Beijing are used to the spectacle.
The 48-year-old has achieved worldwide fame after inventing and building 47 robots in his back yard out of scrap metal. They can perform functions as varied as jumping, painting, drinking, massaging and of course pulling carts.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5386757a1a65.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e51b117a3433.jpg[/atsimg]

Another article:
www.china.org.cn...

On the outskirts of Beijing, in a small village of red-bricked farms flanked by rows of fields, lives an unlikely inventor. Wu Yulu, a 41-year-old repairman, builds robots of his own designs, using nothing but scrap and a fifth-grade education. He spends more than two-thirds of his monthly 1,000-rmb salary on an obsession that keeps him up at night and has plunged his family into debt.

Such single-minded dedication to invention is rare, and rarer still in China's farming communities, where life usually centers around the family and the harvest. And though he has never sold a single robot, Wu won't stop. He's been building robots for years, he said, starting with nothing but a compulsion to see how things worked.

Wu Yulu was invited to participate in the 2008 Microwave Festival. This article features a video:
vimeo.com...

Here's a link to the Society of Robots for those who have found this inspirational:
www.societyofrobots.com...

[edit on 14-4-2010 by berenike]