Could this be the end for Indonesia’s recently famous (read sensationalized) “Iron Man”?
The rains have finally hit Bali and now “Iron Man” is complaining that his robot arm is broken and no longer works since it got wet, reports Kompas. He says the sensor is now defunct, likely from water damage.
Karangasem man I Wayan Sumardana, alias Sutawan or Tawan, took national media by storm as images and video quickly went viral of him sporting a robotic arm, purportedly controlled by his brain through a head-strap.
Sumardana’s story has universal appeal: he’s poor, he says he suffered a stroke six months ago that rendered his left arm paralyzed, and now he has supposedly built this technological-breakthrough of an invention from scrap metal that allows him to work as a welder so he can put food on the table to feed his struggling family.
Bali’s own governor has been very much charmed by Sumardana, reportedly handing out Rp 50 million cash of his personal money to the Balinese man.
But, wait not so fast. Could this guy really have made such an engineering and design feat in a matter of months?
At last, there have started to be just as many critical netizens voicing doubt over Sumardana’s invention as there are glowing profiles on him by national media.
According to Merdeka, Governor Made Mangku Pastika has said that he will send a team of experts to evaluate the robotic arm—though he apparently didn’t wait for their analysis before giving Sumardana so much cash!
And now that the arm’s supposedly bocor (gotten a leak), perhaps we’ll never know from legit experts in the field if it ever really worked.
Sumardana says he intends to repair it and he’s waiting for the governor to send him the necessary parts and tools to fix it, but wouldn’t it be too convenient if he just couldn’t get it back and working now that people want to critically evaluate it? Guess we’ll have to wait and see if this really is Indonesia’s Tony Stark.
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