Wandering Spaceship in Deep Space

Chapter 27: An… Expert?

Zhang Yuan observed Ye Kaifu’s expression first before he made a comment. If the other party was the type that believed themselves to be invincible, he would just casually brush him off with a few words.

After all, there was no deep friendship between them so there was no need for them to have a bickering showdown.

However, if the other party genuinely wanted advice, having a discussion would do him no harm.

“It’s alright, you can be straightforward with me!” Ye Kaifu said hastily.

With that, Zhang Yuan went on and said, “This entire set of data here should be for the pressure variation of the gloves, am I right? The SDK interface of that leather glove.”

“Yep!” Ye Kaifu felt his heart speeding up as he had not expected Zhang Yuan to have really understood his codes.

“Because the gloves generate too much data, your algorithm will selectively discard most of the data, around 70% of it or so.”

“That’s right.” Ye Kaifu nodded his head once again.

Zhang Yuan continued and said, “I feel that these redundant data shouldn’t be entirely discarded. There are 22 joints in the hand and arm. When data from 22 joints are completely collected and transmitted over, the discrepancy between the mechanical arm and the arm its copying will be minimalized. However, by discarding these fine details, the mechanical arm will give off a crude and clunky feeling… I have a few ideas to handle these seemingly useless data.”

“My first idea is to calculate the variance after the partitioning of data. The variance of the redundant data should not be too large … As long as we calculate it as such, we can judge whether it is redundant or not, which is better than throwing it away at random…”

“My second idea is, after partitioning the data, we can use a value function to calculate the value of the partitioned data… Supposedly max[i][j]=max(max[i][k]+max[k+1][j]+w (i,j))…”

Initially, Ye Kaifu was very impressed and the word ‘that’s reasonable’ came out from his mouth several times.

But soon, he entered a state of sluggishness. The reason for that was because… he had no idea what Zhang Yuan was talking about at the end.

‘Hey bro, what max [i][j] are you referring to? I’m lost!’

However, he found it difficult to interrupt as Zhang Yuan gave off an aura of an expert, making it seem like he was the idiot if he were to ask any questions.

“…in conclusion, what I want to convey is that even though an arm only has 22 joints, it has at least 27 degrees of freedom because the arm, wrists, and fingers are flexible. If there is a lack of these 5 degrees of freedom, maneuvering it would feel like moving an excavator. You didn’t seem to have flush out this part well…”

Ye Kaifu understood Zhang Yuan’s conclusion. He also knew that was common sense and he had been in a dilemma for quite some time because of that exact problem. But alas, he strategically gave up due to the difficulty.

Once the flexibility of the arm was considered, the difficulty of modelling and designing would increase exponentially. And he was currently incapable of resolving the problems.

“Then what are your suggestions on what should be done?” Ye Kaifu asked.

“The calculation of rotation can usually be done using quaternion. One of the better books you can refer to is which can be understood with little complex analysis foundation.”

While he was giving advice, he felt that his train of thoughts started getting clearer. Unexpectedly, being a teacher had its perks.

“Quaternion…” Ye Kaifu knew of that term. He was already slightly convinced by Zhang Yuan.

In his mind, he thought, ‘If Zhang Yuan had been my teammate, perhaps we could have won the whole competition. But the main issue is that my university is lacking in terms of having those so-called geniuses and those that could rival against me are too little to count. As such, it has caused me to be indolent. However, things are different now…’

Soon, he started to encourage himself, ‘Let’s work hard, fighting! By working hard, I believe I can definitely surpass him!’

Soon after, he asked impatiently, “Zhang Yuan, let me treat you to supper. I didn’t fully understand your explanation just now. Could you repeat it again?”

“You still want to eat now? It’s going to be 11PM soon. You want to be fat?”

However, as he had only eaten half a bowl of noodles, Zhang Yuan was not full so he was slightly tempted.

“Of course, the night is still young!”

“Ah… alright then.”

If his blood sugar concentration was low, his brain would slow down. Zhang Yuan comforted himself like that.

Both of them immediately acted on their impulses and slipped out of the dorm.

Without a doubt, university days seemed to be the period when humans were the most energetic. Generally, students would not sleep before 12 a.m.

The east gate was still bustling with activity late in the evening.

Ye Kaifu kept talking about various mechanical models, the parameters of various chips, various latest space weapons in an exaggerated and fanatical tone while they walked.

“I love the Enterprise carrier developed by Ying Country. Oh, Mi Country’s Massive Turtle carrier is also pretty good. Oh, our country’s Flying Dragon carrier is also up there. It’s an authentic space carrier equipped with the latest electromagnetic guns.

“Indeed, the development of space weapons has been pretty advanced.”

After barely understanding what Ye Kaifu was talking about, Zhang Yuan wet his lips and said, “However, I believe the research progress isn’t exactly very fast? The global trend now is cooperation rather than confrontation thus resulting in the slow research progress on weapons.”

Ye Kaifu’s spittle started to fly everywhere, as if he had not chatted idly like this for ages. “There are aliens! Isn’t the Dyson sphere enough of a driving force? Though it’s more than a thousand light years away from us.”

“How can a Dyson sphere that’s a thousand light years away from us be considered a driving force? It’ll only be a driving force if it’s at the Alpha Centauri!.”[1]

“If we move into an era where spaceships are available in masses, perhaps every one of us could purchase a private spaceship then? …that day will definitely come. I’ve already decided that my spaceship shall be called Queen Elizabeth! I’ll drive my spaceship and travel into deep space!”

When Zhang Yuan noticed Ye Kaifu who was becoming increasingly fanatic as he chatted incessantly, Zhang Yuan coldly interrupted him and said, “Hey bro, you’ll be without a girlfriend if you do that!”

“Why!? And how do you know?” Ye Kaifu sweated buckets and promptly shut his mouth.

Zhang Yuan looked around furtively and after he checked that the blond reporter he bullied was nowhere to be found, he breathed a sigh of relief and sat on the chair confidently.

“Because you’re talking about names like Queen Elizabeth in front of me and through that name, I inferred that you don’t have a girlfriend…”

“Isn’t it a lovely name though?” Ye Kaifu asked depressingly.

Zhang Yuan found it funny and replied, “Yes, it’s lovely! But girls probably wouldn’t like it.”

“Get together!”

All of a sudden, the opposite table became rowdy. They seemed to have consumed tons of alcohol. There were even a couple who kissed each other during the uproar.

Such actions were no big deal in the current era—it was regarded as pretty normal.

Zhang Yuan took a glance and could not be bothered to look at such actions that made single people envious.

Ye Kaifu sighed and said with envy, “Those who are still here on campus are basically smart people, right? Sigh, it’s nice to be young. I really miss my university days.”

Zhang Yuan said, “The ratio of smart people should be higher, but I doubt all of them are smart. There are also many people who wish to ride coattails to win a prize. With a national award in their resume, they would have higher chances be it to apply for a scholarship or to look for a job.”

When Zhang Yuan said that, Ye Kaifu recalled his past experience of being a lapdog. He was one of the people who had been used by his ‘ex-girlfriend.’

Even though she was his ‘ex-girlfriend’, they had never even held hands. She only offered him the title of boyfriend and he willingly jumped on the ship.

Gosh, he was such a fool!

Ye Kaifu said bitterly, “The hardest part in university is not seeing public displays of affection, smart people showing off their results or rich kids flaunting their wealth. Instead, it’s seeing couples showing off their wealth, smart people publicly displaying affection and rich kids flaunting their results…”

He honestly wished to have a lovely girl that genuinely liked him for who he was!

[1] Alpha Centauri is the closest star from the system and the closest planetary system to Earth’s Solar System at 4.37 light-years from the sun