美国国家地理/2020.9月刊/THE ROBOTS ARE HERE/part.2
If you’re like most people, you’ve probably never met a robot. BUT YOU WILL.
如果你和大多数人一样，你可能从未见过机器人。但你总将会接触到。
If you’re like most people, you’ve probably never met a robot. BUT YOU WILL.
如果你和大多数人一样，你可能从未见过机器人。但你总将会接触到。
I MET ONE ON A WINDY, bright day last January, on the short-grass prairie near Colorado’s border with Kansas, in the company of a rail-thin 31-year-old from San Francisco named Noah Ready-Campbell. To the south, wind turbines stretched to the horizon in uneven ranks, like a silent army of gleaming three-armed giants. In front of me was a hole that would become the foundation for another one.
去年1月，在科罗拉多州与堪萨斯州交界的矮草大草原上，我遇到了一个这样的“机器人”（这边的one代指一种机器人，下文中指绑在平台上负责操控挖掘机的机器人）。陪同我的是一位31岁的旧金山人，他身材瘦骨嶙峋，名叫诺亚·桑德罗·坎贝尔。在南边，风力涡轮机以不均匀的队形延伸到地平线上，就像一支沉默的军队，由闪闪发光的三臂巨人组成。在我面前是一个洞，它将成为另一个洞的基础。
词汇
Rail/铁轨；扶手
Prairie/大草原；牧场
A Caterpillar 336 excavator was digging that hole—62 feet in diameter, with walls that slope up at a 34-degree angle, and a floor 10 feet deep and almost perfectly level. The Cat piled the dug-up earth on a spot where it wouldn’t get in the way; it would start a new pile when necessary. Every dip, dig, raise, turn, and drop of the 41-ton machine required firm control and well-tuned judgment. In North America, skilled excavator operators earn as much as $100,000 a year.
一台卡特彼勒（ Caterpillar ，后文的Cat指的是该公司挖掘机）336挖掘机正在挖掘这个洞——直径62英尺，洞壁以34度角向上倾斜，洞底深10英尺，几乎完全平整。这台挖掘机把挖出来的泥土堆在一个不会碍事的地方;必要时，它会开始堆新的一堆。这台重达41吨的机器的每一次下沉、挖掘、升起、旋转和降落都需要严格的控制和良好的判断。在北美，熟练的挖掘机操作员一年能挣到10万美元。
词汇
Caterpillar /卡特彼勒（财富500强公司之一，总部所在地美国，主要经营工业农业设备）
excavator /挖掘机
slope up/上坡
The seat in this excavator, though, was empty. The operator lay on the cab’s roof. It had no hands; three snaky black cables linked it directly to the excavator’s control system. It had no eyes or ears either, since it used lasers, GPS, video cameras, and gyroscope-like sensors that estimate an object’s orientation in space to watch over its work. Ready-Campbell, co-founder of a San Francisco company called Built Robotics, clomped across the coarse dirt, climbed onto the excavator, and lifted the lid of a fancy luggage carrier on the roof. Inside was his company’s product—a 200-pound device that does work that once required a human being.
不过，这台挖掘机的座位是空的。“驾驶员”躺在驾驶室的屋顶上。它没有手;三条黑色蛇形电缆将它直接连接到挖掘机的控制系统上。它既没有眼睛也没有耳朵，因为它使用了激光、全球定位系统、摄像机和类似陀螺仪的传感器来估计物体在空间中的方向，以看管其工作。圣弗朗西斯科“创造机器人”(Built Robotics)公司的联合创始人瑞迪·坎贝尔(Ready-Campbell)踏着粗糙的泥土，爬上挖掘机，掀开屋顶上一个别致的行李架的盖子。里面是他公司的产品——一个200磅重的设备，（而这之前）曾经需要一个人来作业。
词汇
Since/因为
Clomped/夹紧的；重踏着走
Coarse/粗糙的；粗俗的；下等的
Some workers have wearable robots. An exoskeleton is a combination of sensors, computers, and motors that helps a human do heavy-duty work. Arms with hooks attached, demonstrated by Sarcos Robotics engineer Fletcher Garrison, can lift up to 200 pounds—perhaps to aid airport luggage handlers.
一些工人有可穿戴机器人。一件外骨骼由传感器、计算机和马达组合而成，可以帮助人类完成繁重的工作。Sarcos公司的机器人工程师弗莱彻·加里森（Fletcher Garrison）演示了这种带有挂钩的手臂可以举起200磅的重物——也许是为了帮助机场行李搬运工。
词汇
Exoskeleton/外骨骼
Grasping objects and manipulating them are crucial skills for robots that work with people. Human hands are more sensitive and nimble than any robot’s, but machines are improving. Using fingers inflated with compressed air to mimic a human hand’s soft touch, this robot at the Technical University of Berlin picks up an apple.
抓取和操纵物体是与人类合作的机器人的关键技能。人类的手比任何机器人都要灵敏灵活，但机器还在不断改进。柏林科技大学（the Technical University of Berlin）的这个机器人用充气的手指模仿人手的柔软触摸，拿起了一个苹果。
词汇
Nimble/ 敏捷的；聪明的
“This is where the AI runs,” he said, pointing into the collection of circuit boards, wires, and metal boxes that made up the machine: Sensors to tell it where it is, cameras to let it see, controllers to send its commands to the excavator, communication devices that allow humans to monitor it, and the processor where its artificial intelligence, or AI, makes the decisions a human driver would. “These control signals get passed down to the computers that usually respond to the joysticks and pedals in the cab.”
“这就是人工智能所能实现的功能,”他一边说着一边指向电路板,电线,和金属盒——机器就是这三样做成的:传感器告诉手臂自身方位，摄像机让机器拥有视觉，控制器将其控制信号发送给挖掘机，通讯设备保证人们可以监视其工作，其人工智能的处理模块（或者简称AI），会做出人类驾驶员应有的决策。“这些控制信号被传递到电脑，电脑会对驾驶室的操纵杆和踏板做出反应。”
词汇
Joystick/ 操纵杆，[机] 控制杆
Pedal/踏板
When I was a child in the 20th century, hoping to encounter a robot when I grew up, I expected it would look and act human, like C-3PO from Star Wars. Instead, the real robots that were being set up in factories were very different. Today millions of these industrial machines bolt, weld, paint, and do other repetitive, assembly-line tasks. Often fenced off to keep the remaining human workers safe, they are what roboticist Andrea Thomaz at the University of Texas has called “mute and brute” behemoths.
20世纪，当我还是一个孩子的时候，我希望长大后能遇到一个机器人，我希望它长得像人类，能像《星球大战》里的C-3PO一样。相反，在工厂里安装的真正的机器人是非常不同的。今天，数以百万计的这些工业机器进行螺栓、焊接、油漆和其他重复性的流水线作业。它们被得克萨斯大学的机器人专家安德里亚·托马兹(Andrea Thomaz)称为“哑巴猛兽”，经常被栅栏隔开以保证剩余的人类工人的安全。
词汇
fence off/栅栏隔开
Ready-Campbell’s device isn’t like that (although the Cat did have the words “CAUTION Robotic Equipment Moves Without Warning” stamped on its side). And of course it isn’t like C-3PO, either. It is, instead, a new kind of robot, far from human but still smart, adept, and mobile. Once rare, these devices—designed to “live” and work with people who have never met a robot—are migrating steadily into daily life.
瑞迪-坎贝尔的设备不是这样的(尽管 Cat 的侧边确实印着“小心机器人设备在没有警告的情况下移动”)。当然，它也不像C-3PO。相反，它是一种新型的机器人，与人类相差甚远，但仍然聪明、熟练、灵活。这些曾经罕见的设备——为与从未见过机器人的人“生活”和工作而设计——正在稳步迁移到日常生活中。
Already, in 2020, robots take inventory and clean floors in Walmart. They shelve goods and fetch them for mailing in warehouses. They cut lettuce and pick apples and even raspberries. They help autistic children socialize and stroke victims regain the use of their limbs. They patrol borders and, in the case of Israel’s Harop drone, attack targets they deem hostile. Robots arrange flowers, perform religious ceremonies, do stand-up comedy, and serve as sexual partners.
到2020年，机器人已经开始在沃尔玛盘点存货，打扫地板。他们把货物放在架子上，然后取来寄到仓库。他们割莴苣，摘苹果，甚至是树莓。他们帮助自闭症儿童社交，帮助中风患者恢复四肢的使用。他们在边境巡逻，用以色列的Harop无人机攻击他们认为有敌意的目标。机器人会送花、举行宗教仪式、表演单口喜剧，还会充当杏伴侣。
词汇
Raspberry/树莓；红草莓
autistic /孤独症患者
And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Suddenly, replacing people with robots—an idea majorities of people around the world dislike, according to polls—looks medically wise, if not essential
那是在新冠爆发之前的场面。根据一个民意调查，“突然之间，用机器人取代人类”，世界上大多数人都不喜欢这个想法——在医学上看起来是明智的，如果不是必要的话
Robots now deliver food in Milton Keynes, England, tote supplies in a Dallas hospital, disinfect patients’ rooms in China and Europe, and wander parks in Singapore, nagging pedestrians to maintain social distance.
如今，机器人在英国米尔顿凯恩斯(Milton Keynes)送食物，在达拉斯一家医院送手提袋，在中国和欧洲为病人的房间消毒，在新加坡的公园里游荡，不断给行人以提醒以保持社交距离。
词汇
Nag/唠叨
