The photo shows a circuit board of Diao's new innovation, fire extinguishing and explosion proof intelligent robot (system), at his office in Fushun, Northeast China's Liaoning province, Sept 27, 2016. (Photo by Wu Yan/chinadaily.com.cn)
Achieving this goal is not easy. When he first developed the technology, the cost was very high. To lower it, Diao challenged himself by making many additional experiments until the cost dropped to a price range that satisfied him and that the civil use market can accept.
As the core technological difficulty of the fire extinguishing robot lies in its circuit board, every adjustment and improvement means making a new circuit board.
Diao has to weld over a hundred components to a hand-sized circuit board. Though skillful and experienced as he is, making a new circuit board costs him half a day, plus he had to keep his hands steady and not get distracted. As components are expensive, a mistake usually meant a waste of money and more time.
During the research process, he made over a hundred circuit boards in repetitive experiments and spent three years without weekends to create the final version of the fire extinguishing robot.
"What you make is not a product but an art. You have to see your work as your child," said Diao, "For example, you can make a product at the size the standard requires you do, but you can also make it as small as possible. You have to use your ability to the extreme in every small art piece."
More than a hundred of failures and years of tedious experiments never defeated him and the success of the fire extinguishing robot is not the end of his creativity. He seems to be inexhaustible by shouldering another seven undergoing research projects.
"The key is your interest," said Diao, "I did every experiment with hope and I loved every moment of success."
