没男朋友拎包？让滚滚帮你拿！

 　　On a walk or bike ride home from the grocery store, a new robot is designed to carry your groceries. Following a few feet behind, it can navigate¹ a crowded urban sidewalk while you walk unencumbered. Once you teach it the route, it can also go back to the store on its own.

　　从食品店走路或者骑车回家时，一种新型的机器人能够帮你拎货物。它能够在拥挤的城市人行道上行走，跟在你身后并保持几英尺的距离，你就没负担啦。如果你把回家的路线教给它，它就能自己回家了。

　　The cargo² bot, called Gita, is in development at the Boston offices of Piaggio Fast Forward, the American offshoot of Piaggio, the Italian company best known for making the Vespa. If the Vespa was a postwar innovation, created to navigate bombed-out Italian streets more nimbly than a car, the Gita is the company's take on 21st-century mobility³.

　　这款名为Gita的货运机器人由波士顿的Piaggio Fast Forward办公室研发，它是以Vespa机车而闻名的意大利Piaggio公司在美国的分公司。如果Vespa机车这种战后发明是为了比汽车穿梭在被炸毁的意大利街道更灵活而创造出来的话，那么Gita就是该公司在21世纪交通工具市场的收入啦。

　　"We're focused on this issue of occupying and being able to navigate boundary lines and spaces that are not available to automobiles—namely sidewalks, civic⁴ spaces, and being able to move across indoor and outdoor thresholds," Jeffrey Schnapp, CEO of Piaggio Fast Forward, tells Co.Exist.

　　“我们关注使用以及探索非机动车行驶的地方及其边界线，这些地方由人行道以及出入建筑的门槛构成，”Piaggio Fast Forward的CEOJeffrey Schnapp对Co.Exist的记者说道。

　　For people who own cars, the Gita is designed to make walking a more appealing option. "One consideration was really: 'What is the threshold at which we stop walking places?" he says. "When do people typically decide this is too much weight, or too burdensome or cumbersome⁵ an object for me to carry, and I'm going to get in the car . . . we did a lot of research on this and we came to the conclusion that there really are some clear thresholds in that regard."

　　对于拥有汽车的人们而言，Gita能够让走路成为一个更有吸引力的选项。“有一个考虑是很现实的：‘我们无法行走的地方的界限是什么？’”他说。”人们什么时候会觉得这个机器人太重了，或者对我来说带上它效率太低，是个大负担，然后准备用汽车装货……我们对此做了很多调查，并得出这样的结论：这些问题确实存在一个清晰的门槛。“

1 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

2 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

3 mobility   

n.可动性，变动性，情感不定

参考例句：

• The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
• Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。

4 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。

5 cumbersome   

adj.笨重的，不便携带的

参考例句：

• Although the machine looks cumbersome,it is actually easy to use.尽管这台机器看上去很笨重，操作起来却很容易。
• The furniture is too cumbersome to move.家具太笨，搬起来很不方便。