VOA慢速英语2014 科学家们开发一个机器人 可以组装本身

 

Scientists Develop a Robot That Can Assemble Itself 科学家们开发一个机器人 可以组装本身

Origami is the Japanese art of shaping paper to look like animals, flowers and other objects.  Now, Harvard University scientists have modeled, or formed a robot on the ancient art form.  They have created designs that robots can follow to assemble themselves, or put themselves together. 

Sam Felton builds robots.  The Harvard graduate student works at the university’s Microrobotics Laboratory.  His most recent creation is a robot 18 centimeters wide and 15 centimeters long.  It has four moving legs and looks like a crab¹.  Sam Felton spoke² to VOA on Skype.

“We started with the desire to make robots as quickly and cheaply as possible. And so we looked to origami in order to find ways to create a very complex and functional³ machine. Mathematically, origami can create almost anything you want.  But the trick is to actually get it to happen in real life with real materials.”

Mr. Felton starts with what are called shape memory polymers.  These are flat plastic sheets that change shape when they are heated.  Electronics placed between the layers, or levels, of material are programmed, or set, to start the folding action. A battery provides the power. 

“And we supplied these with current, much like you would supply a light bulb with current, and that heats up that local area to above 100 degrees Celsius⁴. Once it hits 100 degrees Celsius, the shape memory polymers shrink, and that pulls on the paper, causing it to fold over.”   

The paper starts folding itself within 10 seconds.

“And as soon as that brain is told to start running, it goes through the process of telling each circuit to turn on or off and once it knows that it’s assembled, it tells the robot to walk forward.”

It takes about four minutes for the robot to assemble itself.

“What we’ve shown here is that you can embed⁵ all these systems onto an autonomous⁶ robot and cause it to control its own folding.” 

Mr. Felton wrote about his work in the journal Science.  He says the process permits researchers to quickly produce complex robots that can build themselves into different sizes, depending on what they must do.  The robots are also strong for their weight.  One valuable quality is that self-building robots can be shipped flat in large numbers, then unfold themselves where they are needed. 

“I like to think about assembling in space.  If you could send a ream of flat sheets up, that then turn themselves into satellites or even send that team to another planet and have it turn itself into a new base.”

Sam Felton says such machines have other possible uses.  They could, for example, be placed in the narrow spaces of a collapsed⁷ building and unfold themselves to look for and rescue people.

1 crab   

n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气

参考例句：

• I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
• The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了，就象螃蟹的壳似的。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 functional   

adj.为实用而设计的，具备功能的，起作用的

参考例句：

• The telephone was out of order,but is functional now.电话刚才坏了，但现在可以用了。
• The furniture is not fancy,just functional.这些家具不是摆着好看的，只是为了实用。

4 Celsius   

adj.摄氏温度计的，摄氏的

参考例句：

• The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
• The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。

5 embed   

vt.把…嵌(埋、插)入，扎牢；使深留脑中

参考例句：

• The harpoon struck but did not embed.鱼叉击中了但并没有插入。
• This photo showed us how did the root of plant embed the soil deeply.这张照片显示植物的根是如何深入到土壤里去的。

6 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。

7 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。