War of Intelligent Machines

Chapter 15: Unleashing Talent

Chapter 15: Unleashing Talent

When Jiang Hui heard that her grandson was going to work in Shenzhen, she reminisced about her own youth. She had been a good pilot, but she insisted on becoming an astronaut, never satisfied with her current situation and always aiming for newer, higher goals. It seemed her grandson had inherited this trait.

Jiang Yu was delighted to hear about her son's new job in Shenzhen. She admired his adventurous spirit, as he had already changed jobs twice in a short period, which she found better than her own research work in the basement.

Boss Tang was taken aback and reluctant when he learned that Jiang Yuecheng was resigning. Employees like Jiang Yuecheng were hard to come by. Despite his own reluctance, Jiang Yuecheng decided to leave Tang's employment to pursue leads on his enemies.

After bidding farewell to Boss Tang, Jiang Yuecheng took the vacuum high-speed train from Hangzhou to Shenzhen with his grandmother, arriving in just half an hour. His workplace was in the Shanwei District of Shenzhen, so he rented an apartment there.

Repairing robots was second nature to him. After a month of training, he officially started his job, which mainly involved house calls. As Hongzhi Yuan Company expanded from police and special-purpose robots into household robots, many issues arose, leading to frequent customer complaints. This required people like Jiang Yuecheng to provide on-site service.

One day, Jiang Yuecheng received a repair order. The customer was a paralyzed elderly man who had installed a daily care robot from Hongzhi Yuan Company. This robot could help bedridden patients sit up, wash, use the toilet, eat, and perform simple cleaning tasks. However, the robot's right arm was malfunctioning, losing half its functionality.

After inspecting it, Jiang Yuecheng discovered that the robot's shoulder joint, equivalent to the deltoid muscle, had an internal short circuit in its electrostatic muscle. Curious why his mother's invention would short circuit, he connected his handheld terminal to the robot.

Upon reviewing the robot's log files, he noticed a strange pattern. The elderly man issued over a hundred bathroom commands to the robot daily, sometimes less than a minute apart. This likely caused the shoulder joint muscle to fatigue and break down.

"Why do you need to use the bathroom over a hundred times a day?" Jiang Yuecheng cautiously asked the elderly man.

The elderly man looked embarrassed and couldn't respond.

"Do you want to stand up and walk?" Jiang Yuecheng realized that the elderly man, bedridden for a long time, might feel restless and lonely, wanting the robot to help him stand as a form of amusement.

"Yes... I don't want to lie down..." the elderly man finally admitted after a long pause.

"If you want to get up, you should command the robot to 'help me walk.' If you keep asking it to help you with the toilet, you'll wear it out," Jiang Yuecheng explained.

The elderly man nodded hesitantly.

"Try it now. Command the robot like this: 'help me walk.'"

The elderly man followed Jiang Yuecheng's guidance, commanding the robot, "help me walk."

The robot heard the command and calmly approached the bed, pressing a button by the bedside. The bed began to move, first elevating the man's upper body and then positioning him at the edge of the bed.

Once the robot confirmed the man's body was ready, it used its left hand to grab the man's waist belt and its right hand to support the man's underarm and back. It then lifted the man's upper body and slowly moved him to the floor, securing the man's waist belt to a ring on its waist.

The robot's movements were smooth, essentially transferring the man's weight to its waist. The robot's waist could bear more weight than its arms, so following the walk command prevented malfunctions.

When assisting with toilet use, the programmers considered the need to unbutton trousers, so they designed the robot to support the man with one arm continuously, causing arm fatigue from frequent bathroom trips.

Returning to the company, Jiang Yuecheng researched this type of robot further and wrote an improvement suggestion for the design department. He proposed adding an optional mechanical arm to the robot's back, capable of lifting heavy patients or objects to reduce the arm's burden.

Surprisingly, his suggestion was quickly adopted by the design department.

...

Another day, Jiang Yuecheng received a repair order for a malfunctioning housekeeping robot. The owner, a bespectacled young man in a wheelchair, looked scholarly.

Upon inspection, Jiang Yuecheng found the robot's system had been deleted, likely by the young man. He cautiously asked, "Did you try to flash the system?"

"No!" the young man replied innocently. "What does that even mean?"

Skeptical, Jiang Yuecheng used his portable terminal to access the robot's BIOS system. The logs showed that the system had been flashed the previous night, with several failed attempts to install a new system due to version issues.

"The logs show the system was flashed last night," Jiang Yuecheng stated seriously.

"Oh... really? I didn't flash it. Did you?" the young man feigned ignorance.

"Company policy requires a fee for repairing flashed robots," Jiang Yuecheng continued.

"A fee? Who pays?" the young man asked, playing dumb.

"The robot owner," Jiang Yuecheng replied impatiently. "I'll leave now. Call the company and report the issue."

After leaving, Jiang Yuecheng pondered how to block users from flashing the robot's system, allowing only professionals to do so. He researched extensively online and compiled a document, submitting it to the R&D department to implement user-restricted flashing.

This suggestion was also adopted.

In less than six months, Jiang Yuecheng submitted four improvement suggestions to the design department, with three being accepted. The design department head appreciated his initiative and responsibility, writing a commendation letter to the higher-ups.

One day, while writing his monthly report, HR approached Jiang Yuecheng, asking if he'd like to work in the design department.

Of course, he agreed. This was part of his plan. His numerous improvement suggestions aimed at getting into the design department, bringing him closer to the company's core.