Throw 3 yuan of coins from the coin mouth, and a beautiful woman wearing a pink top, a scarf, and a delicate long-haired shawl will first say "Welcome", and then pour the soy milk from the copper pot in her right hand into the paper cup prepared in advance and hand it to the customer. The Mandarin-speaking beauty is called "soy milk Xishi" – she is not a real person, but a second-generation robot developed by Zou Junmin, a 75-year-old luzhou old man.
Four years ago, Zou Renmin, a 71-year-old man in Luzhou, developed the first generation of stone grinding robots, which aroused the attention of CCTV's "I love invention" and has been out of control ever since. In the past four years, the old man has developed a humanoid robot that can grind bean flowers, chop peppers, mash rice dumplings, welcome guests and other purposes. In the past two years, it has sold nearly 100 units nationwide and generated revenue of more than 3 million yuan. Nowadays, Zou Zhimin has developed the latest version of the "soybean milk Xishi" robot has become a "net red", which has once again aroused attention.
All his life he was associated with machinery and studied robots
The 75-year-old Zou Shimin was originally from Nanxi County, Yibin, because his wife was from Luzhou, Zou Zhimin later moved to Luzhou to live, and also built his factory in the second section of Yingbin Avenue in Longmatan District. Zou Junmin looked much younger than his actual age, full of spirits, and he not only drove himself, but also rode a battery car every day. The material procurement in the factory and the reception of visitors are all his own experience.
According to Zou Zhimin, in 1963 he was admitted to Chengdu University of Science and Technology, majoring in mechanical manufacturing technology and equipment, and was assigned to Yibin Electroacoustic Equipment Factory after graduating from university in 1968. Since then, because of the needs of Yibin's winemaking industry, Zou Zhimin has been seconded to Work in Wuliangye Distillery, and has successively engaged in automatic bottle washing machines, automatic filling machines, automatic labeling machines, etc., and then went to the sea to Hainan to do business.
"I have been associated with machinery all my life, my family has gone to Chengdu, and in order to invent and create, I have been staying in Luzhou to take care of the factory." Zou Zhimin told the Chengdu Business Daily reporter that he invented it not to make money, nor to have fun in his later years, but to fulfill the promises he made when he was young. Zou Zhiming recalled that when he first entered college, he and two other classmates in different research directions began to worship as three brothers, vowed to contribute to the country and the people, and aspired to automate the invention and creation of the country, so the three decided to change their names to "subordinate to the people" and changed them to Yuan Congmin, Zou Shimin and Zhou Yumin respectively.
Patent certificate for Zou Shimin and his first generation of robots
Zou Said that in the past few decades, in order to engage in mechanical automation research, he had to work until 12 o'clock in the night or 1 o'clock in the morning the next day before going to bed, and he had never slept at noon in his life. Four years ago, Zou Zhimin found that the soybean milk machine on the street, the soybean milk that was beaten was not the traditional stone grinding soybean milk, not to say, it had not been filtered, and the soybean residue and soybean milk were sold to consumers together; and some workshops that made soybean milk, although the soybean residue was filtered according to the traditional production process, some unscrupulous traders added rice soup and even cold water to the soybean milk.
"I am engaged in mechanical automation, I wonder if I can use my professional skills, combined with the traditional production process of soy milk, to develop a robot that can grind soy milk." In October 2014, Zou Beiming began to develop the first robot. Drawing thousands of pictures, it took two months, and the first generation of stone grinding robots was soon available. He put the robot into the restaurant in Longmatan District and set up a "robot" restaurant, which attracted crowds of people to watch and attracted media attention, including CCTV. Zou's subjects were out of control from then on.
Overcoming difficulties and experimenting a hundred times, the robot began to speak
In Longmatan, Zou Has Two Small Processing Workshops with more than a dozen workers. One of the workshops processes the first generation of robots, and the other workshop processes the second generation of robots he has just developed. In the new workshop, stone grinding robots and soybean milk robots are displayed side by side, the two robots look like real people, the "man" is pushing and grinding, and the "Xi Shi" who sells soy milk is a "woman" with a scarf. The Chengdu Business Daily reporter noticed that the robot man has a baby face, which is actually more like a teenager; "soybean milk Xishi" is slightly mature, but it is also a girl's appearance.
Zou Shimin stepped forward to start the power supply, put three dollars and coins in the coin mouth, and "Push Mo Brother" and "Soybean Milk Xi Shi" began to work. I saw that the stone grinding robot slowly pushed the stone mill with its right hand, and the water cup in the left hand was constantly adding a good proportion of water and beans to the stone mill. The milled soy milk flows continuously into the steam generator. After the hot soy milk is boiled, "soy milk Xishi" opens its mouth to greet the guests: "Welcome, please taste the robot freshly ground soy milk", and also take off the paper cup containing soy milk and pour a full cup of soy milk for the guests.
From grinding beans to drinking steaming soy milk, it only took more than 10 minutes. According to Zou Zhimin, this "husband and wife" robot covers an area of only about 0.5 square meters, which is about 1/10 of the first generation of robots. "The first generation of robots, one push mill, one bean, covers an area of nearly 6 square meters." The second generation of robots not only greatly saves space, but also can sell drinks, wine, tea and other items on their own by simply coin.
The difference from the first generation of robots is that they can "talk". "The robot speaks in unison with the shape of its mouth and eye movements." Zou Zhimin told the Chengdu Business Daily reporter that the most difficult thing in research and development is to let the robot "speak". In order to make the robot speak at the same speed and mouth shape, he tried nearly a hundred times before debugging a satisfactory effect.
In order to try to simulate as much as possible, just "Welcome, please taste the robot freshly ground soy milk" sentence, Zou Shimin looked for nearly ten college students to record it. When the recording is taken back, Zou Needs to achieve verbal shape, speech speed and sound matching in mechanical composition. In this matter, the more than ten workers he invited could not help anything, only he designed the drawings himself, repeatedly debugged and verified.
At the same time as "speaking", the robot will also "raise its eyelids" and turn its head. This time, Zou Zhimin installed a "silicone" skin for the robot, which looked more realistic. In order to make Mu Ne's robot expression more vivid, Zou Zhimin also found a tattoo master and gave the robot "tattoo embroidery" makeup, making the "soybean milk Xishi" couple more exquisite.
Stone grinding robots are exported to the whole country, and orders have been continuous for several days
In the past four years, the reputation of Zou's people has become more and more famous, and many merchants have come to visit. In order to ensure that there is an adequate supply of goods, Zou Zhimin requires that workers must ensure that there are at least five sets of inventory. At the same time, according to the needs of various merchants, Zou Zhimin has developed a number of varieties of robots such as welcome robots, pepper chopping robots, and mashing robots. "These robots can not only replace humans and reduce the labor intensity of human beings, but also maintain the original taste of some traditional crafts, which are loved by merchants and consumers."
Wang Gang, a Mianyang merchant who came to visit the factory, runs a traditional handmade tofu workshop and is the main supplier of traditional handmade tofu in Mianyang. He uses the traditional stone grinding process to make tofu, the family hired 3 people to grind beans, each person's monthly salary is about 3,000 yuan, but the manual grinding of beans is too hard, and the workers are also low wages. Seeing Zou Shimin's stone grinding robot, Wang Gang decided to replace the labor with a robot, "not only can work 24 hours a day, but also will not be tired, the cost is lower."
Zou Zhimin told the Chengdu Business Daily reporter that the first generation of robot research and forming mass production, basically from December 2015 only began, in the past two years or so, with "soybean milk Xishi" as the main type of robot exported to Xinjiang, Beijing, Fujian and other nearly 20 provinces, sales of nearly 100 units, revenue of more than three million yuan. "Not to make money, not to kill time, but to fulfill the promises I made when I was younger."
For the production team in his factory, Zou Zhimin adopts the method of general contracting and handing over the production of robots to the contract workers. "I'm in charge of the materials, the drawings, they make and produce according to the drawings, and they have to produce a batch of products in 30 to 45 days." According to the workers in the factory, Zou Zhimin has high requirements for the accuracy of robot processing, and the two or three teams that have been contracted before have not produced qualified products, so the official external sales have been basically delayed for one year. "Once I wanted to go to Shandong to participate in the exhibition, and they didn't process it." Zou Said.
Zou Shimin's robot not only saves time and effort and cost, but also tailors personalized products for customers to make them as convenient as possible for customers and consumers. "We use Shandong big bluestone stone grinding, the grinding is too heavy for one person to move. And soy milk is a protein-rich drink, stone grinding must be cleaned after use, otherwise it will spoil and affect health. In order to solve the customer's worries, Zou Zhimin added a top grinding and flushing device to the second generation of robots. After use, there are thousands of gold tops directly grinding the stone up, and then open the self-flushing system, you can easily get it.
Not long ago, customers from Beijing and Xinjiang said that their restaurants were upstairs, and the robot was too heavy to need eight people to carry up. Zou Shimin worked overtime to draw drawings and installed four wheels on the robot, so that only one person could push the robot anywhere.
The children's heart ached "old makers", and Zou Shimin was forced to take leave
Zou said he had never really had a day off since he worked. When he was working in Yibin in his youth, in order to tackle a mechanical automation project, he once stayed up late for 40 nights without going home, and he was so sleepy that he took a nap on the chair and continued to work. "For decades, I've run all the airports in the country and traveled to many countries, and when Hainan Island first started developing, I left my job and went to the sea." Zou Zhimin told reporters that realizing mechanical automation and reducing people's physical exertion is the only goal of his "old maker".
"There are now 15 sets of robots in the factory, but there are too many people to see in these two days, and there is simply not enough to sell." Zou Zhimin told reporters that in the past two days, he has received nearly ten batches of merchants, of which at least three batches want to take provincial agency rights. "This makes me very embarrassed, because the second generation of robots launched this time is probably the last robot I have developed."
It turned out that Zou Shimin's son was engaged in real estate development in Chengdu, and his daughter was the financial head of an insurance company, and the sons and daughters of the superior family were worried that the elderly would work for a long time and their health would not be able to stand it. "I buy materials during the day, receive customers, accept products, and stay up late at night to draw drawings." Zou Zhimin said that his wife has already gone to Chengdu to enjoy the joy of heaven, but he really can't put down the robot he developed with one hand, and the order has not been broken, "I took the order from others, and I will be responsible for others." ”
"The children commented on me and my wife, saying that one was too good to play and the other was too tired." Zou has recently had some disagreements with his children, who have asked him to dispose of the factory in Luzhou and go to Chengdu to reunite with his family. "My son issued an ultimatum, either selling the factory or giving it to someone else, or he couldn't do it anyway." Zou Said the children were heartbroken and wanted him to live a relaxed life.
On the afternoon of the 20th, Zou Zhimin will rush from Luzhou to Chengdu, although he is very reluctant in his heart, he has been "forced to take leave" by the children. Zou said his sons and daughters booked him a tour group to Russia and bought a plane ticket. "If you don't go, waste money and don't say anything, it will also chill the hearts of children." Zou Shimin told reporters that he will return from Russia on the 29th, and then he will return to Luzhou. The second generation of robots developed by Zou Shimin, patent applications are underway, even if forced retirement, he must "stand on the last shift".
Chengdu Business Daily client reporter Luo Min Yibin News Hotline 13550702929
Courtesy of respondents
Edited by Yang Yutong