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

"After I had made a robot that could walk, I wanted to see if I could also make it jump," Wu said, "I didn't care about the practical use of the machine, or if it could make money in the future."

Wu had been poor for the greater part of his life. But he would spend his last buck to buy materials to make machines. His wife remembered many occasions when she had to borrow money to buy the parts for him.

Wu's unpopular name in the village would have been a problem for him to find a wife. But after the first meeting arranged by a matchmaker, he fell in love with the girl named Dong Shuyan. It was hot summer. Wu made a device that, driven by electric power, waved a cattail-leaf fan. He took it to Dong's home. The gift captured the girl's heart.

After the wedding ceremony, Dong shouldered the major responsibility of the family, raising two sons and sharing the hardship -- and sometimes horror -- of her husband's extraordinary engagements. Wu's left hand was severely injured by the blast of a detonator that he found at a recycling center and mistook as an imported battery. The small object was marked "TNT". Wu said he had noticed it but did not understand. He regretted leaving the school too early. And one day in 1999 a fire broke out in Wu's mud brick and wood house, causing heavy losses to the family. The fire was started by the voltage regulator Wu used to facilitate his work at night. The incident almost led to a divorce and the dissolution of the family.

It would not be unfair to say that Wu was an absent-minded husband and father.

"He would forget eating or sleeping when he encountered a problem with the machine," said his second son Wu Wangyang.

"He did care about us when we had illness. But in other times he did not pay attention to his children like a normal father," Wu Wangyang said, "He cared more about his machines."

In 2002, Wu submitted his Wu No. 5 to a national farmer's S&T competition. He won the first prize and an award of 10,000 yuan. Two years later, he won the title of "the Brightest Farmer Inventor" and another 10,000 yuan. He sold his Super Wu No. 5. to an individual and another robot for wiping windowpanes to a company. Wu said he was talking with a business group for jointly manufacturing and developing robots.

Dr Li Chengrong, a researcher with the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said Wu's robot products were mostly mechanical.

"It was not easy for a farmer to accomplish this with only his hands," he said.

To quote a senior Tongzhou District Government official, who retired years ago, "Wu has won glory for the hometown."

Han Changjiang, the current village CPC chief, said the local government has helped Wu by supplying electricity he needed. And the two patents Wu holds were obtained under the auspices of the government.

"We'll continue to give him due help. But we don't know much about his activities. He seldom talked to us," Han said.

Wu Yulu used to be a man of few words. He was reportedly red-faced and couldn't give a word on his first media occasion at the 2002 event. Now, he looked natural before the camera and talked preparedly about his past and present.

With the busy social activities, Wu has less time now for devising and making machines. "It is a concern," he said, "it will be temporary. I have many ideas in my mind that need to materialize."

Wu did produce two new robots this year, increasing the total of his robot products to 36. He would not show the new products lightly out of a concern of protecting his intellectual property. He told the reporter that one robot was designed to help turn invalid patients in sick beds. The other was able to play chess with people. The two robots use artificial intelligence furnished by his younger son Wu Wangyang, who is a first-year Computer Science & Technology major at Beijing Information S&T University.

According to Teacher Li, Wu Yulu's passion for and talent in making machines is inherited from his late father, who had nimble hands and was in the habit of doing every piece of work on hand neatly and well.

"Now his younger son Wu Wangyang is just like him," she said.

Wu Wangyang said after graduating from college, he would help his father in weaving the robot dream. The father and son seemed to be nurturing a vivid and bright scenario.

(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2009)