Wu Yulu was busy. The China Central Television and Tianjin Satellite Television visited his home on back- to- back days to produce special programs about him. In the past few years, he attended conferences and exhibitions, and lectured at several universities.

"Many people invited me to dinner. Many of my fans took pictures with me and asked for my autograph," he said.

Once regarded as a "prodigal son", Wu Yulu became a social celebrity, not just in the village. [Sina.com.cn]

A third-grade school dropout with a bit of self-taught knowledge of electricity, the 48-year-old farmer's son has made manually 30-plus robots with wires and iron & steel, wood and other materials. On his pink-colored name card he marked his profession as "inventor." People called him "Robot Daddy".

Seven years ago, Wu Yulu was an obscure name in Mawu Village in the southeast suburb of Beijing, about an hour's drive from the city proper. Only neighbors and close friends knew he had a zeal for mechanical work and that he had made some strange machines.

When he was a small boy, the fifth son of a poor rural family, he was regarded by fellow villagers as a black sheep. He didn't like the school and often played hooky. But he showed an enormous interest in playing with whatever toys he could get his hands on. His school bag was full of small objects he collected on the way to and from school. He made boat miniatures with wood, elastic rubber bands and spring steel strips. Once he was intrigued by a disused iron lock. He figured out its structure and was able to fashion a master key for it.

Wu quit the elementary school in his third year. Teacher Li Shihua, 70, said she was impressed by the boy's handwriting, and his paintings were not bad, either.

"He liked to dismantle and reassemble toys. As for studying lessons, I really don't remember that he had any outstanding performance, " she said.

When Wu grew up, he showed little ambition in supporting himself or the family by doing good farm work. The yields from the land he tilled were often far less than those by others. He continued to spend most of the time working on or playing with all sorts of small gadgets. Being the youngest son in the family, Wu was favored by his parents and indulged. But the behavior that came from being spoiled won him a bad name in the village, where good farm work was most important to a household.

The beginnings of Wu's robot making bore a resemblance to an anecdote about Isaac Newton. The idea occurred to him one day when he saw a tall young man in blue clothing hustling past the gate.

"I was fascinated by the graceful, coordinated stride of the man's walking. I asked myself 'Can I make a machine man that can walk like him?'" Wu recalled. He began to sketch on a cardboard and found materials to build his machine. He was about 11 years old then. The initial attempt was not successful. But the idea lingered on. A decade later, he was employed by a village-run factory as a maintenance worker. His robot dream was rekindled. His first work was a man-shaped machine that could slowly walk, dragging a tail on the rear to keep balance. It was named Wu No. 1. A series of robots had followed, making Wu a prolific "Daddy" of 34 robot children.

Wu No. 1 walked but was unable to raise its legs. Wu No. 2 raised its legs but still needed a tail to maintain balance. The subsequent products improved on the earlier models. They could climb or jump or perform simple human acts. And the number of legs of a robot varied from two to 20. Wu No.25 was attached to a two-wheeled cart. "He" greeted people in a pre-recorded human voice. At the command of the person sitting on the cart, who operated on a pair of handles that resembled those of a motorbike, "He" pulled the cart forward or moved it backward.

Inventions were inspired by curiosity and an impulse to challenge himself.