Collaboration +11
Second Research Building, main briefing room.
I stuck the robot’s leg-joint drawings and the sensor log chart Director Yoon had handed me side by side on the whiteboard.
Then I turned to the four veterans standing before me and the robot lab researchers gathered stiffly in the back, all of them visibly on edge, and began.
“To get straight to the point, the reason this thing face-plants is a 0.05-second lag.”
“A lag?”
Department Head Maeng, who’d been standing there with his arms folded, cut in brusquely.
I tapped the log chart with my pen.
“Yes. The top-of-the-line sensor mounted in its head gives the command to stop 0.01 seconds after it steps on a rock. But those absurdly huge, heavy titanium legs and high-output motors can’t beat inertia, so they keep pushing forward for another 0.05 seconds on their own.”
“Hah, is that so?”
“It’s the mismatch caused by the control system moving faster than the physical hardware can follow. The load piles into the knee joint and blows it apart.”
The moment I finished speaking, the four experts began running simulations in their heads without a shred of doubt.
The first to react was the hydraulic specialist, Department Head Maeng Giyong.
“So the head’s fast, but the body’s slow, huh? Then we just need to tweak the spool in the motor-side hydraulic port and increase the valve opening speed itself. If we dump the flow all at once, we can shave off 0.02 seconds.”
“If the mechanical limits are still there, why not build predictive control into the code?”
Senior Researcher Jo Seokhun pushed up his glasses and said while hammering at his laptop.
“If it moves 0.05 seconds late, then we adjust the PID gain values so the algorithm issues the command 0.05 seconds early instead. We’d be chewing up the mechanical delay with software. It isn’t pretty, but it’s the surest method.”
“No, Senior. What’s the point of touching the valves and tweaking the code? If you leave that massive frame weight alone, the knee joint will just fail again from fatigue. You’ve got to reduce the weight itself.”
Production Technology Team Leader Park Kwangchul, a monkey wrench hanging from his shoulder, dropped the tool onto the floor with a heavy thud and barked in his rough voice.
As expected of these seasoned old hands.
The moment they heard the core of the problem, they’d already produced the best possible answer from within their own fields.
But instead of nodding, I picked up the marker and began writing over their ideas.
“All of you are exactly right. But if we apply those fixes as they are, the robot will explode again.”
“What?”
“Why?”
Department Head Maeng and Senior Researcher Jo narrowed their eyes.
I quickly began writing equations across the drawing.
“As Department Head Maeng said, if you dump the flow all at once, the speed will improve. But can the joint sealing withstand that sudden pressure change? The hydraulic line will blow apart from surge pressure.”
“Ah…”
“So raise the spool opening speed, but add a damper on the return line to absorb the shock. That’s what will let the joint hold.”
Department Head Maeng’s mouth fell open.
I’d hit exactly the durability issue he’d missed by focusing only on speed.
I turned at once to Senior Researcher Jo.
“Your method carries a big risk, too. If you apply predictive control all the time, what happens on level ground? The moment the prediction misses, the robot will kick at empty air and trip over itself.”
“That is… certainly a concern about oscillation, yes.”
“So instead of simple prediction, let’s go with feed-forward. Give it weight only at the moment the sensor data spikes. Don’t pull 0.05 seconds ahead at all times; make its response explode only when it takes a hit. That’s your specialty, isn’t it?”
Jo Seokhun adjusted his glasses and let out a dry laugh.
“Feed-forward, huh… You can juggle that many variables in your head? Hah, I think I’ve learned something today.”
At last, I looked at Park Kwangchul.
“And Team Leader Park. If you just shave the whole thing down indiscriminately, the torsional rigidity won’t hold and it’ll snap.”
“Then what, you tell me? Heavy is heavy no matter how you cut it.”
“Don’t thin the whole frame. Drill holes only where the load doesn’t pass through the neutral axis. Keep the skeleton like a truss structure and strip away the flesh. I’ll mark every spot you need to drill with my pen.”
When I set the marker down after finishing my explanation, silence settled over the briefing room for a moment.
The four old hands looked from one another to me and back to the writing on the whiteboard.
“Whoa…”
Park Team Leader was the first to break the silence, clicking his tongue in disbelief.
“Baek Department Head—no, Baek Team Leader. What the hell are you, anyway? You talk like you can see straight through steel.”
“Hydraulics, control algorithms, structural analysis… so this is why you called all of us here. You knew one man could bang the drum and play the flute at the same time.”
Jo Seokhun shook his head in awe.
In the beginning, their eyes had been those of people who’d come merely to help.
Now they had changed.
I gave them a light smile and said, “All right, now that we’ve got the answer, shall we get back to work?”
*
Second Research Building, machining room.
“Hey! Don’t just stand there like idiots—rip off that leg first! Bring me the thigh frame!”
Park Team Leader’s roar shook the lab.
At his command, the researchers scrambled over and began dismantling the robot’s massive titanium legs.
“W-watch it! If you strip the screws, it’s over!”
Before long, the thick titanium frame that had been removed was carried into the machining center.
Park Team Leader switched on the power to the prototype five-axis machine that had been gathering dust in the corner, then started pounding the panel with his rough hands.
Tap-tat-tat-tat-!
Invisible handwork.
The machining path that an ordinary researcher would have had to labor over for ages in a CAM program was being entered in real time as G-code from his fingertips.
“Hey! This toy’s chuck force is too weak—if you clamp titanium like this, it’ll kick back! Bring me another vise! Clamp it down tight!”
Park Team Leader shouted toward the inside of the machine.
While the researchers rushed to carry over another vise, he had already finished the setup.
Beep—
Then he hit Enter.
It had taken barely three minutes to finish setting everything up.
“He, he didn’t even stop and he coded all that in one go? In three minutes?”
“No way… it takes me an hour just to calculate the coordinate values for that shape…”
The jaws of the elite researchers carrying tools from behind nearly hit the floor.
The man in work clothes they’d usually dismissed as some brute from the shop floor.
But right now, in their eyes, Park Team Leader was a monster that devoured theory whole.
Whiiiiiir—!
Shhk-!
Cutting fluid poured down like a waterfall, and inside the machine the titanium screamed as it was chewed away.
On the monitor, lines of code were also cascading down like a flood.
“Department Head Maeng! Is the damper installation finished?”
“The piping’s all been ripped out and rebuilt! Surge pressure won’t happen anymore!”
Department Head Maeng, drenched in grease, raised a wrench and gave me a thumbs-up.
I stood there with my arms folded, watching the scene.
The titanium frame being cut down inside the machine.
As its shape changed, the image of the robot I’d drawn in my head overlapped perfectly with it.
Every path the end mill passed over matched the neutral axes I’d sketched on the whiteboard.
The unnecessary flesh that had been overheating red under excessive load was being physically stripped away.
We’d erased the very space where stress could gather, so now that leg could not possibly turn red, no matter how much it wanted to.
“Piping work done! Clean lines!”
The same was true where Department Head Maeng set down his wrench.
The sections that used to be bent awkwardly and choke the flow were gone, and along the graceful blue trajectory I’d envisioned, the new piping took its place.
“Simulation error down to within 0.001 percent!”
Jo Seokhun’s monitor was the same. The jagged waveform had disappeared, and the graph was now spreading smoothly along the ideal curve I’d presented.
As I watched, I thought that I really should gather people to work with me for real, not just drag one group of them around like this.
*
“Hoo… done.”
Park Team Leader tightened the final bolt and let out a rough breath.
Hunt-Dog, standing back on the operating table, looked utterly pitiful.
Not only had we stripped off all the sleek, streamlined exterior covers in the name of cutting weight, but we’d punched holes all through the titanium frame.
At this point it was less a robot than a hunk of scrap hauled back half-broken from a battlefield—a gaunt skeleton with no flesh left on its bones.
“Th-that… that’s all right?”
One of the original researchers, who’d stayed awake all night watching, wore a pained expression.
It wasn’t unreasonable. A robot they’d designed at the cost of tens of billions had turned into an eyesore overnight.
But to me it looked different.
The most primitive, most perfect shape possible—everything unnecessary stripped away for one purpose only: running.
And it had even been modified exactly the way I’d ordered with my own eyes.
At the very least, to me, it couldn’t help but be beautiful.
“I think we can stop worrying now.”
“R-really?”
“Yes. Shall we wake it up?”
At my signal, Jo Seokhun hit Enter.
Whir—
The power came on, and the robot slowly straightened up.
It was no longer the same dull, heavy sound as before.
It was light and nimble, like a predator awakening from sleep and stretching its body.
“Oh my God…”
Director Yoon, watching from beside it, let out a gasp.
The robot lightly stamped one foot in place.
The impact on the ground was absorbed smoothly by the hydraulic damper, and the muscles responded to the commands of the brain without even 0.01 seconds of delay.
It was done.
This was going to work.
“Success… success! It matches the simulation data perfectly!”
Manager O Jinhyuk shouted, waving his tablet.
Just as the tension that had stretched taut through the lab all night was about to loosen into relief—
the tightly shut research lab door opened.
And standing there was Executive Director Kang Minseok of the Strategy Planning Office.
One of the chairman’s closest men, and one of the most powerful figures in the group, had arrived with his entourage in tow.
The head of Strategy Planning himself showing up at dawn.
That… had a bad feeling to it.
“Executive Director Kang? What brings you here at this hour?”
Director Yoon asked, flustered, as he stepped forward.
Executive Director Kang gave the grease-smeared floor and the grotesquely transformed robot a dry once-over, then spoke to Director Yoon.
“Step outside for a moment. Let’s talk. Baek Department Head, you as well.”
“Yes, sir.”
I followed after Executive Director Kang with Director Yoon.
Out in the hallway, Director Yoon lowered his voice.
“A notice came down from the Defense Acquisition Program Administration. Taesung Heavy Industries has requested a reassessment of the project’s feasibility.”
“...Excuse me? What? Why would Taesung suddenly do that?”
“They’ve apparently been badgering the National Defense Committee, saying their six-wheel unmanned vehicle is ready for deployment right now, while Hanseo Defense’s robot can’t even take its first steps—and asking how long we plan to keep wasting taxes.”
At Executive Director Kang’s explanation, the color drained from Director Yoon’s face.
“Thanks to that, we’ve got an audit. If we can’t prove ourselves at Darakdae Training Ground in Pocheon one week from now, our business rights are revoked immediately.”
“My God… how can they do this…”
Director Yoon muttered with both hands over his face.
Watching them, I immediately grasped the situation.
Taesung Heavy Industries had sniffed out the scent perfectly.
They’d seen our robot project wobbling and figured one push would bring it down.
This was their plan: use a comparative evaluation as an excuse to crush us, then drag our budget over to their own wheeled vehicle in one clean sweep.
In this business, it was textbook.
“I came to confirm that matter.”
Executive Director Kang’s gaze moved past Director Yoon and settled on me, then on the hideous robot standing behind him.
He looked at it for a moment before speaking again to Director Yoon.
“If you’re not confident, pull out now.”
“Yes…?”
“If you go out there with unfinished scrap and get crushed by Taesung, it won’t just be the robot division that’s ruined. The chairman’s judgment in approving this project will be questioned as well. Better to withdraw and blame a maintenance issue; from the company’s point of view, that would leave less damage.”
Executive Director Kang was laying out a brutally rational balance sheet.
Director Yoon’s fists trembled.
Of course they did.
After pouring their lives into making this thing, he was being told to forfeit before even fighting.
But he couldn’t refute it.
The Hunt-Dog in his head was a fool that tripped over its own feet even on flat ground.
Seeing Director Yoon biting his lip so hard it nearly bled, I stepped forward.
“What if we don’t forfeit? It feels like a fight we can almost win.”
At my words, Executive Director Kang’s brows twitched.
“Baek Department Head. Do you even understand the situation right now? The other side is Taesung. Their equipment is already fielded.”
“A wheeled toy? Honestly, that makes it easier. We can stomp it flat properly.”
I loosened my tie and grinned.
“Leave it to me. I won’t let anyone smear the chairman’s face.”
For a moment, silence hung between us.
Executive Director Kang stared at me without blinking.
He seemed to be weighing whether I was bluffing or whether I had a real card up my sleeve.
One minute passed like that.
Then the corners of his mouth softened.
“Fine.”
Executive Director Kang reached into his pocket and held out a business card.
“That’s the answer I was waiting for.”
“······”
“If you’re going to fight, then I’d better give you real weapons. Tell me what you need—materials, manpower, equipment, anything. I’ll bypass Finance and get it funded immediately from the chairman’s reserve.”
As expected.
For someone in the chairman’s inner circle like Executive Director Kang, backing down without a fight would have looked bad too.
He’d been hoping someone else would take the spear for him, and I’d just raised my hand.
“Thank you. I’ll put it to good use.”
“One week from now. Prove it by results.”
Executive Director Kang turned neatly on his heel and disappeared with his entourage.
All that remained in the hallway were Director Yoon and me.
The moment the tension left him, Director Yoon seized my arm.
“B-Baek Department Head! Are you insane?”
His hand was shaking like a leaf in the wind.
“We’re up against Taesung Heavy Industries! You know our robot can’t even stand still without looking like it’s about to fall over, and you’re saying we’ll definitely win? What exactly do you plan to do now?”
It was a near-shriek.
I understood the reaction.
Even I wouldn’t have dared walk into that kind of match carrying a robot that keeled over every chance it got.
But instead of answering, I opened the tightly shut lab door.
“Director.”
“W-where are you going! Listen to me!”
“What good would a hundred more words do? Just watch with your own eyes. Once you do, you’ll think differently.”
I dragged the half-dazed Director Yoon into the lab.
Inside, Park Team Leader and Jo Seokhun were waiting for my signal.
“Everything ready?”
“Of course.”
“Then shall we start?”
Jo Seokhun grinned and pressed Enter.
Whir—
The mechanical hum broke the silence.
Director Yoon squeezed his eyes shut.
As if he didn’t want to see it toppling over in a clatter again.
But then—
“...Hm?”
The sound of the expected crash never came.
Instead, only the faint, eerie scrape of metal against metal split the air.
Director Yoon slowly opened his eyes.
Then he stopped breathing.
“Th-this is…”
Before him stood the robot, reduced to nothing but a bare skeleton.
The hideously stripped-down machine was gliding across the lab floor like a predator stalking prey.
Thud, thud, thud.
The clumsy vibrations were gone.
The instant its feet touched the ground, the dampers swallowed the shock, and its joints bent and straightened with ghostlike smoothness.
Its mechanical delay had vanished completely. It was perfection itself.
I looked at Director Yoon, who stood there with his mouth hanging open, and placed my hand on the robot’s cold metal frame as it came to a stop before me.
“See?”
I gave Director Yoon a grin.
“This guy’s ready to run.”