The Urban Dao Child.

Chapter 171 - Robo-Aid.

After the meeting was completed, the boy went back to the lab. He started assembling the parts and tools needed for the bot with Frieda in fervor. The two people had forgotten the sense of time.

The moon hung high in the skying watching the two people through a big window they were immersed in testing and debugging the software of the robot. The robot was ugly. It had no body cover on it as the two people were still in the middle of testing and the body was yet being manufactured by the 3-D printer. 

The tools short-circuited many times, they did not give up. The whole process lasted for a week and for the last 3 days the boy did not even bother to go back home. Feng Yun tried to talk him out of it but he did not budge at all. In the end, they could only arrange for a room for him in the office building. The whole staff was aware that the boss was residing in the building to complete an upcoming project. 

...

After a whole week of work. The two people decided to test and run their product in a natural environment. They installed the body covering and changed the bot from ugly to sleek and cute. They place the bot in the employee pen they also made the janitors not clean the floor. 

After they placed the bot in standby mode, they pressed a button on top of it and went back to the room to rest. 

...

An employee came inside the office and when he came to the employee pen, he raised an eyebrow. He caressed his table with his finger only to find slight dust accumulated. He sighed and said, "Come on. why is it dirty?"

BEEP, HELLO, DO YOU NEED MY HELP TO CLEAN IT UP FOR YOU?

A sweet mechanical voice sounded behind the man. The robot was coded to sound this way. He turned around and found a white and blue ball slowly rolling over to him. The ball stopped a few feet away and a panel lit up on the center of the ball. A few blue LED lights were arranged like a smiley face :) 

The voice sounded again, 'HELLO, CAN I HELP YOU CLEAN UP THE DIRT AROUND?'

The man realized that it was the ball that was speaking to him. he pinched himself and the slight pain confirmed that he was awake. He asked, "How do you know that I need your help in cleaning?"

The bot replied in the same voice, "My scanners picked up some dust on your fingers. May I help you? Please?"

The employee was blown away when he saw the bot begging to help him. A big smile surfaced on his face and he said, "Yes, please clean up."

The bot LED lights turned from blue to red and the bot quickly moved over to the side of the desk. Then from its side came out a rotating brush. The brush cleaned the side first. The employee sighed thinking that the bot was so small, how can it clean such a high desk. 

His thoughts has just completed when a few suction cups came out of the bot's surface. The circular bot then used the suckers and cleaning brush simultaneously and climbed the desk. The rest became history. 

...

The next day, a video on the internet went viral. The video showed how a bot cleaned up the whole office. It recorded the whole conversation between a man and the bot. The bot introduced itself as ROBO-AID. 

A lot of netizens commented and asked for more details. They all found that the video was posted by Dao Technologies. This immediately made the people energetic. A lot of them have seen the mobile OS and the driverless car. They were all impressed and immediately asked for the price and release dates.

...

The company claimed the bot as their upcoming product. The notice also stated that they will be holding a press conference to issue the price and other details related to the product. The netizens all were paying attention to the website notifications. 

In the noon, it was declared that the press conference will be held in the evening. All the major media platforms send their correspondents to the company. The stage was set and the reporters all sat down on their respective chairs. 

Yang Dao had asked Mary to call some of the upcoming celebrities who live on their own and cannot clean their houses regularly. His purpose was to let them advertise the product. A day before the press conference, they had sent out fifteen sample bots to such celebrities and the company hired camera teams to record the video. 

The upcoming stars were obviously happy to generate such heat for themselves. So, the process was smooth. The media was shown all the videos one by one and they all noted a lot of key points of the robot. 

Yang Dao walked over the stage and the people started to raise their hands. They were aware of his style by now. The boy however shook his head and said, "The developer of the robot is not me alone. The credit goes to the main developer, Miss Frieda Foster, a senior student in the Jade City National university. She specializes in robotic science and it was her idea that made Robo-Aid come to life. Please give her a huge round of applause."

As Yang Dao retreated while clapping his hands. Frieda walked over holding a ball in her hands. She placed the ball o the podium and said, "Hello everyone. Thank you for coming over."

She said, "Feng Yang Dao is a modest guy so please do not believe him. Behind this sweet little face of his lies a brain that makes me wonder if he is really a normal human. The bot algorithms and a lot of other things were thanks to his effort only. When I started to make a robot, my idea was to make something like a human. But after he told me a design in his mind. I agreed to it within five minutes. 

Robo-Aid is a product similar to the Mobile OS the company released earlier. It is capable of using free conversation but that is limited to only cleaning and some other basic stuff..." She started to introduce the various features of the robot and her enthusiasm hooked onto the people quickly as well. 

After she was done she took a sip from the water bottle on the podium and said, "Dao, over to you."

Yang Dao walked over with a smile and said to the people, "Well, I know that you all are eager to ask questions. Let me give you a quick demo before that."

He pressed a yellow circle on the top of the bot and said, "Robo-Aid. Wake up"

The LED flickered a few times followed by a long yawn. The mechanical voice sounded, "Time to work?"

Yang Dao said, "Robo-Aid, we have a lot of guests today."

The bot asked,  'Do they bring dirt and germs along with them?'

The reporters laughed, Yang Dao said, "Yes. So will you help me clean up the mess." 

The blue lights turned red and the bot replied, 'It will be my honor.' the voice became a bit too macho causing the people to burst into laughter again. 

Yang Dao said, "The bot is programmed to be funny and interactive with the hosts. The reason is that we are all tired of a bland vacuum cleaner. Also, it can help you relieve loneliness. Now let us have some questions."

A lady asked, "How much is it priced?"

Yang Dao sighed and said, "The most difficult one first. The bot is priced, ten thousand carat coins for the classic model, twenty thousand carat coins for the boosted model. The difference between the two is that one supports wireless charging and the former basic model does not. The boosted model comes in different colors, such as anyone you select from the color palate."

A man asked, "Boss Feng, do you think that everyone can pay ten thousand carat coins?"

Yang Dao shook his head and said, 'Of course they cannot. That is why the company is providing them all with a ten installments payment plan. The bot comes with a guarantee of a year and five years warranty if the equipment is faulty. The people can pay for the bot in ten parts, thousand-carat coins per month. This price is too cheap and affordable.

The bot is low maintenance and you will not regret it."

The questions and answers continued. In the end, Yang Dao said that the product will be up for order within a week and the order can be placed on the company website. To kill the middlemen, he introduced that everyone needs to provide an ID copy. One user one bot policy for a few months so that the people do not get scalped. 

Other than the three companies earlier, he bought three more and had them remodeled by the time the press conference was held. The press conference had just ended when the big tycoon companies started to rush over with congratulations and collaboration offers. One of them being Cryptonian company called, Mecha-tech.