The Level Arm

A small university test room in Kofu on a clear May morning, a wide window with green mountains under a blue sky, on a grey steel workbench an assembly robot, a white-painted column broad at its top, two flat white arms one above the other swinging level over the bench, ribbed motor housings on both joints, at the outer end a vertical tool shaft with a coiled black cable lowering a small steel pin into a green circuit board, both arms plain smooth white from end to end, trays of small electronic parts, a hand in a white shirt cuff laying the next board in place.