Chapter 182: It's not a robot dog, it's an open platform!

Li Jiajun looked at the colorful plastic blocks scattered on the corner of the table, and the tangled mess in his mind regarding system integration suddenly felt as if an invisible hand had smoothed it out.

Although this guy Wang Dachui was usually unreliable, this pile of Lego that his son had left behind was now radiating the light of wisdom in Li Jiajun's eyes.

He reached out, picked up a long red brick, and then picked up a square blue brick.

"Click."

Two blocks of completely different shapes and colors snapped together perfectly.

Immediately after, he picked up a component with wheels, and with another "click," installed it on the bottom.

A prototype of a simple little car was born.

Take it apart, change the direction, and it could be reassembled into an airplane wing.

Li Jiajun's gaze gradually deepened, and it was as if countless data streams were interweaving in his pupils.

'Why go to the trouble of designing a monolithic skeleton?'

'Why weld sensors, batteries, and motors into fixed positions?'

'The pain point of traditional robots lies in the difficulty of maintenance and upgrading; they are too delicate. If one part breaks, the whole machine has to be dismantled.'

'But, what if they were like Lego?'

Li Jiajun's hands moved faster and faster as he assembled the blocks.

'As long as the interface standards are unified, and the power supply protocols and data buses are universal, then every single part can be an independent module!'

'Leg broken? Pull it off and replace it with a new one; it's as simple as changing a lightbulb.'

'Want to run fast? Swap in a leg with a high-power motor.'

'Want longer battery life? Plug two more battery modules onto the back.'

'Want…'

Li Jiajun's gaze was fixed on the raised circular interface on the block.

That was the standard.

That was the connection point for all things.

That was—a Picatinny rail… *cough*, no, that was a universal civilian expansion interface!

As long as the physical dimensions, voltage standards, and communication protocols of this interface were defined, this robot dog would no longer be a rigid product.

It would become a living, infinitely evolving organism!

Boom!

Deep in his mind, it was as if a heavy door had been suddenly pushed open.

Ding!

【You have observed the modular combination of Lego blocks, combined it with distributed computing architecture, and gained insight into the construction method of a plug-and-play modular robot system! You have had an epiphany!】

Countless pieces of knowledge regarding bus control, hot-swapping protocols, and distributed computing power allocation flooded into his brain like a sudden enlightenment.

Li Jiajun abruptly threw down the blocks in his hand.

"I've got it! I've totally got it!"

Like a Columbus who had discovered a New World, his face filled with uncontrollable ecstasy, he turned and rushed toward the design station.

Then, he plopped down onto his computer chair, his hands turning into blurs once again, typing furiously on the keyboard.

...

This performance left the Netizens in the stream completely bewildered.

"???"

"Is the Streamer having another episode?"

"He was just playing with Lego, why the sudden climax?"

"Why does it feel like the Streamer looks at those blocks more affectionately than I look at my girlfriend?"

"To the user above, your girlfriend is inflatable, right?"

...

Li Jiajun had no time to pay attention to the chat.

On the screen, a brand-new, highly sci-fi design sketch was rapidly taking shape.

It was no longer that kind of seamless, streamlined shell.

Replacing it was a modular design full of industrial aesthetics, with the mechanical structure exposed.

The torso was a rectangular main control core, covered with standardized interface slots.

The four legs were independent power modules, attached directly to the torso via clips.

The head was a sensor module, which could even be swapped for a camera, a spotlight, or anything else.

On the back, a row of neat, universal rail interfaces was reserved.

Half an hour later.

Li Jiajun hit the enter key hard, saving the design file.

He stood up and turned around. At this moment, his hair was a bit messy, but his eyes were frighteningly bright.

He pointed to the robot dog model on the screen, which was exploded into its components, his voice slightly hoarse from excitement:

"family! Look here!"

"This is the new product about to be launched by Li Family Toy Factory!"

"But I must correct one thing."

Li Jiajun held up a finger, waved it in front of the camera, and a look of extreme confidence appeared on his face:

"What we are building is not just a robot dog."

"It is an open platform!"

"In this system, all the hardware—whether it's legs, eyes, ears, or batteries—is just like Lego!"

"Broken? Pull it off, throw it away, plug in a new one, and it's revived in three seconds!"

"Not strong enough? Buy an upgrade pack and plug it in; it transforms immediately!"

"Even its back interface is completely open! As long as it meets our standards, you can attach whatever you want to it! Attach a basket to go grocery shopping, attach a speaker to dance in the square, or even attach a spotlight to go exploring—do whatever you want!"

"This is—plug-and-play! This is—infinite possibilities!"

Li Jiajun became more and more excited as he spoke, waving his arms, as if he could already see the spectacular scene of robot dogs carrying all sorts of strange things running all over the city.

However, the reaction in the stream was surprisingly calm.

Or rather, it was a kind of numbness after experiencing great storms.

The Netizens looked at the man on the screen spitting with excitement, only feeling a sense of "as expected" in their hearts.

Gaining insights on motors from watches.

Gaining insights on algorithms from a dog catching a mouse.

And now, gaining insights on modular systems from Lego blocks.

Even if Li Jiajun said he had gained insights on time travel from a toilet now, everyone would probably just nod calmly and say "oh."

The chat drifted by sparsely, revealing a Buddhist-like detachment:

"Alright, alright, we get it, you're the best."

"Learning to build toys from toys, that's self-consistent logic for you."

Li Jiajun looked at these lukewarm reactions in the chat, and instead of getting angry, he smiled speechlessly.

'Are these guys stunned into numbness by me?'

However, being stunned was fine too.

Now he had the theory, the design, and the algorithm.

Everything was ready; all that was needed was the east wind.

Li Jiajun turned his head, his gaze passing through the office's glass window, casting it toward the empty, long-silent production workshop downstairs.