VOA慢速英语2021 希腊邮政使用机器人加速邮件分拣（在线收听）

A group of small robots are helping speed up mail delivery service in Greece's capital city of Athens.

一批小型机器人正在帮助加速希腊首都雅典的邮件递送服务。

Fifty-five, four-wheeled autonomous mobile robots are working in the mail center of the national mail service called the Hellenic Post.

55台自主移动式四轮机器人正在希腊国家邮政服务中心工作。

They scan postal codes, weigh mail pieces and empty them into mail bags.

它们扫描邮政编码、给邮件称重然后将它们倒入邮袋。

The robots are part of the state-owned company's digital restructuring program. It aims to deal with growing numbers of mail pieces from online shopping during the coronavirus pandemic.

这些机器人是这家国有企业数字重组计划的一部分。它旨在应付新冠病毒大流行期间越来越多网上购物产生的邮件。

George Constantopoulos is head of the Hellenic Post. He told Reuters, "Until recently, sorting has been carried out by manual labor with a high demand in time, often with errors occurring, causing delivery delays for our customers and increased costs for the company."

乔治·康斯坦托普洛斯是希腊邮政的负责人。他对路透社表示：“直到最近，分拣都是由人工进行，时间紧迫，错误频出，导致我们客户的交付延迟并且增加了公司的成本。”

The robots handle up to 80 percent of the mail sorting at the center. Constantopoulos said the process was up to three times faster, and deliveries are nearly guaranteed for the next day.

机器人处理了该中心高达80%的邮件分拣。卡斯坦托普洛斯表示，这个过程加快了3倍，而且几乎保证次日送达。

The robots can handle as many as 168,000 pieces of mail, weighing up to 15 kilograms, each day. The robots only need to be recharged every four hours for 5 minutes.

这些机器人每天可以处理多达16.8万件邮件，可称重高达15公斤。这些机器人只需要每4个小时充电5分钟。

Constantopoulos said, "The purpose is not to replace human workers with robots, but rather to augment human workforces and make them more efficient."

卡斯坦托普洛斯表示：“我们的目的不是用机器人取代人工，而是扩充人工并提高他们的效率。”

Meanwhile, the United States Postal Service (USPS) announced that it would slow down mail delivery service in some areas starting in October to cut costs.

与此同时，美国邮政局宣布将从10月开始放慢部分地区的邮件递送服务以降低成本。

USPS said some pieces of mail could take up to two days longer to arrive. And the service also raised the price of sending a letter from 55 to 58 cents.

美国邮政局表示，某些邮件可能需要长达两天时间才能送达。而且该局还将寄信价格从55美分涨到了58美分。