Automatic Robotic Arm

The summer rainstorm poured all night, only easing slightly as dawn approached.

At 5:30 in the morning, the sky still hadn't brightened. Braving the drizzling rain, Ning Yifan changed clothes and went out for his run as usual.

This heavy downpour had cooled the sweltering September city considerably, making the morning run even more refreshing.

Just past five in the morning was already the quietest time in this city, and with the drizzling rain, jogging through the streets meant even taxis and cars were rarely seen.

This city, with a permanent population of millions, felt as if only Ning Yifan remained, running endlessly forward.

Rain soaked his hair and drenched his T-shirt, bringing a rare sense of exhilaration. It was the same street he ran every morning, but accompanied by the fine rain and gentle breeze, his pace today was slightly faster than usual.

Still, when he reached the breakfast stall, the owner had already opened for business. Whether sunny or rainy, those hustling to make a living never arrived late.

"Boss, three meat buns, three veggie buns, and a cup of soy milk."

"Coming right up! Not taking a break even in the rain, huh?" The owner, long accustomed to his first customer of the day, skillfully packed several large buns for Ning Yifan.

"Running only means something if you stick with it. It's become a habit—if I skip it, I feel like something's missing. And the feeling of sweating while running is especially satisfying!"

"Impressive!" The owner gave a thumbs-up.

After paying and taking the buns, Ning Yifan headed toward his neighborhood, finishing breakfast outside as usual.

Back in his rented room, he took a hot shower and entered work mode, refreshed and energized.

Today marked the tenth day since the projectors sold out. The projector components ordered from over a dozen manufacturers would all arrive today, one after another, allowing him to start a new batch of assembly and sales!

Compared to before, when he had to worry about sales, this time he only needed to assemble the projectors and put them up for sale.

And the assembly work could be handled by the automatic robotic arm.

In the afternoon, the SF Express courier, braving the incessant drizzle, carried box after box of Ning Yifan's packages from the delivery truck into the rented room.

Just for Ning Yifan's packages alone, the courier made four trips, each time loading the three-wheeler to the brim, prompting him to exclaim that next time he'd just drive a van for delivery!

Box after box of various equipment components were placed inside the room, once again stacking it to the brim.

This time, it was even more cramped than before. The entire room was nearly filled with all kinds of components, leaving only a narrow path connecting the bedroom, study, workspace, and kitchen.

Among these product components, the vast majority were for the projectors, while a small portion were the various parts for the Fully Automatic Production Robotic Arm that Ning Yifan had ordered.

Starting from the afternoon when the goods arrived, Ning Yifan plunged into intense, busy work. First, he sorted out all the components for the Fully Automatic Production Robotic Arm and moved them into the workspace. Then, he began assembling and debugging the arm.

After two or three hours of nonstop work, the original cardboard boxes holding the equipment components were all empty, flattened into sheets and stacked aside. The layout of the workspace had changed once again.

The central workbench remained, but now a two-meter-long robotic arm sat atop it. Below the arm was a square mainframe fixed to the workbench.

The mainframe was made of thick iron sheets—a sturdy, large chassis measuring a meter in both length and width. Inside lay the machine's brain: a control system composed of a motherboard, CPU, and other computer components, along with a high-speed network signal receiver. Additionally, the motor controlling the arm's rotation and movement was housed within.

The lower chassis combined the brain and heart of the Fully Automatic Production Robotic Arm, while above it sat the arm itself—a two-meter-long structure resembling an excavator's boom and arm, topped with three finger-like gripping devices. These were integrated with small motors, pressure sensors, distance measurers, and other equipment.

Beyond the arm itself, the room held over twenty cameras and sensors with various functions. These sensor devices could clearly and accurately transmit every change in the room to the arm's computer, which would then calculate and control the arm through the entire process—from picking up components to assembling them.

This was the first-generation Automatic Robotic Arm, limited by the available components. Overall, it looked similar to equipment in large automated factories. Once Ning Yifan could produce his own parts, there would be plenty of room for improvement—like building arms similar to those of Doctor Octopus, the villain from the Spider-Man movies, which would be more flexible and powerful.

"Finally finished!" From afternoon until nightfall, Ning Yifan finally breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the long robotic arm standing silently on the workbench, converted from a dining table.

Though he had a photographic memory and was certain his assembly process was flawless, he still followed the operational procedures from his dream learning to test the Fully Automatic Production Robotic Arm.

Without a ping-pong ball nearby, Ning Yifan grabbed an egg from the fridge as a substitute, placing it beside the arm. He also prepared a pen and a sheet of white paper.

He plugged in the arm and pressed the start switch. The machine booted up, beginning with a self-check. The long arm rotated twice, its three finger-like devices made grasping motions in the air, and the boom and arm moved back and forth. After about a minute, the first self-check completed, and a green light on the signal indicator lit up, signaling a pass.

The control computer for this fully automatic machine ran a system Ning Yifan was familiar with, but the software operating it was one he had written himself for the Automatic Robotic Arm.

Through a fifteen-inch touchscreen panel mounted on the machine, Ning Yifan tapped to run the software. Test item one: grasping.

After clicking start, all the arm's cameras and sensors activated, accurately locating the egg on the workbench among all the items in the room. The boom and arm bent, the joint at the top rotated 360 degrees, and the three fingers precisely gripped the egg.

The egg remained intact, the force just right. Holding the egg, the joint rotated again, the boom, arm, and fingers coordinated with a slight shake, and the egg left the fingers, heading into the air.

The arm tossed the egg, then quickly caught it again—toss, catch, toss, catch—repeating ten times. The egg was still perfectly intact. The first test was complete!

Next came the writing test. After setting the egg aside, the arm grabbed the pen from the table, adjusted its angle slightly, and began writing on the paper.

"Test results: excellent. Ready for equipment assembly!" The three fingers held the pen steadily, producing characters as neat as a printer's output.

The arm's operation was entirely normal, exactly as Ning Yifan had expected.

After tidying up the room, Ning Yifan moved boxes of projector components into the workspace, opened the packaging, and activated the Fully Automatic Production Robotic Arm.

In the workspace, aided by various sensors and dozens of high-definition cameras, the arm began to operate. It accurately picked out the needed components from the piles and started assembling the projectors.

In less than three minutes, one projector was assembled, debugged, packed into a prepared cardboard box, fitted with accessories like the power cord and HDMI cable, and sealed with tape. One projector was fully assembled!

The entire process took three minutes, meaning twenty projectors could be assembled in an hour!

The room was still too small. If it were larger, adding a few more of these Automatic Robotic Arms and arranging them into an assembly line could complete one projector in a minute or even less!

Unfortunately, it all came down to not having enough money to buy a factory.

All of Ning Yifan's current funds had been spent on purchasing the projector components.

After watching the Fully Automatic Production Robotic Arm run smoothly for a while, Ning Yifan stopped paying attention. From then on, he only needed to replenish the components periodically and move the finished projectors out of the workspace to store elsewhere.

Compared to the painstaking manual assembly, this was far, far more convenient!

Once he had money, he could even automate the replenishment of components and the transport of finished products—that would be perfect!

The Automatic Robotic Arm could assemble twenty projectors per hour. From the moment Ning Yifan finished assembling and testing it, the machine ran nonstop. By the next morning, over half of the projectors were already assembled.

With three hundred projectors assembled, Ning Yifan relisted the projector products in his store, began sales, and sent messages to all the buyers who had followed his shop.

The Phantom Projector going on sale was long-awaited good news for customers who had been waiting many days!

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