Life and Leisure

Urban Ingenuity

By Liu Yujie and Wang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-17 09:52

Wooden planes, tin-can subs, robots from rubbish

 

Wu Yulu - robots from the waste heap

He was once branded an irresponsible farmer who took no interest in his crops.

That was until he took five homemade robots to a national competition and walked away with the top prize of 10,000 yuan. That changed the minds of the folks in his village, because "it was a big fortune, far more money than you can ever earn by growing vegetables and rice," Wu says.

His first robot, Wu I, was put together with iron wires and it could walk by itself. It was a simple robot, but Wu was proudest of it.

"When I completed it, I was the happiest man in the world," he remembers. Now, Wu has a research institute which designs and makes robots. Already, he has more than 40 robots which can perform various functions, including cooking and giving a massage. All of them are made from recycled materials, just like the very first one.

Wu Shuzi - wooden airplane powered by pumps

His airplanes are made of wood and powered by water pumps. In the Jiangzi village of Jiaokang, villagers gathered to give his invention a send-off the day it was taken to an exhibition in Shanghai. Wu stood there like a proud father at his daughter's wedding.

He has five daughters, but it is doubtful they will get substantial dowries because Wu has already spent all the family's money making the airplanes. His dream is to make a plane that he can travel in to see the world - at least as far as the county seat. The first plane he made is from wood, with a vague resemblance to a hencoop, and is powered by four water pumps inside the shell.

There is still a lot of work to be done, since Wu says the pumps keep breaking down. But he is already thinking of his next project, a helicopter. "A helicopter is just a flying chair. It should be easier," he says.

Tao Xiangli - submarine made from oil drums

Security forces doing a quick sweep of the area before the 2008 Beijing Olympics were alarmed at what they thought was a suspicious submarine hidden in the tussocks in Fangshan district.

But it was just Tao Xiangli's homemade vessel. Pieced together with what were six oil drums, Tao's little submarine is equipped with a direction meter, a fully rotating periscope and its own oxygen supply.

In order to make this, 34-year-old Tao pumped in all his money, and had to borrow another 10,000 yuan from friends. "It was the finances that topped the list of my difficulties, more than the technical difficulties," he said.

His interests in technical designing started at five, when he was inspired by an article he read. Now that his submarine is being exhibited in Shanghai, Tao is dreaming of another model - an amphibian that can work under water, in the air and also on land.