VOA常速英语2018--农场运用机器人技术为人们提供优质便利产品

This is the farm at California-based Iron Ox industries. This robotic arm keeps its artificial intelligence eyes on these greens, makes sure they’re well cared for and have room to grow.

这里是位于加利福尼亚的Iron Ox工厂。这只机械臂可以运用人工智能眼睛查看这些绿色植物，确保它们得到很好的照顾，并有继续长大的空间。

At Iron Ox, we built the first production robotic farm.What that means is we’re using robotics and AI to grow better produce and make it more accessible than everybody. And this is Argos. Argos is responsible for moving the plants from plot to plot, making sure each plant has enough space to grow. We have a 1,000 pound mobile robot, lovingly named Angus,that navigates¹ our farm, autonomously² picks up one of these hydroponic rail modules⁴ and then brings them over to this robotic arm. And then the robotic arms uses things like computer vision that can actually see in 3-D,so it looks at the module³ know through what the plant are and it does whatever the task is, like... like harvesting or transplanting. You can’t see the red coloration yet...It is really a fairly simple plan.

我们在Iron Ox建造了第一个生产机器人农场，这意味着我们正在利用机器人技术和人工智能来更好地生产产品，并使其更加易于被大众接受。这是Argos，Argos负责将植物从一个板块移到另一个板块，确保每株植物都有足够的生长空间。我们有一个重达1000磅的移动机器人，它的名字很可爱，叫Angus，它可以在农场里进行导航，可以自动拿起一个水栽轨道模块，并将其转移到这个机械臂上。然后机械臂利用像计算机视觉这样三维可视化的东西，通过观察模块就可以知道这是哪种植物，然后便可以完成各种任务，比如摘取或移植。目前你还看不到红色的......这其实是一个非常简单的计划，

The team plants lots of seedlings⁵ and as they grow they get more space, and that is where Iron Ox engineers say their robotics systems really shine. We pack the lettuce⁶ and herbs in as closely as we can, but as they get bigger, we actually scale them out and space them apart. And that’s called transplanting. Other firms do that but it’s a tedious repetitive task today whereas our robots are doing it every day, all day. The result is an easily scalable farm. In urban settings, Iron Ox is looking to expand all across the United States. Right now we’re focused on business to business, selling product to local chefs and restaurants, serving the local community as well as donating a portion of our produce to local food banks. As we start to grow, we are looking at doing nationwide coverage⁷ and building farms outside of every major city to better serve them very local high quality produce. Similar labs have been tried and abandoned but Iron Ox is hoping to prove that these kinds of startups can be successful.

该团队种植了大量的幼苗，随着幼苗的生长，它们将会有足够的生长空间，Iron Ox工程师说这就是他们的机器人系统真正发挥作用的地方。我们尽可能紧密地把莴苣和草药包装在一起，但当它们长大时，我们就会把它们分开，这就是所说的移植。其他公司也有这么做的，但是他们只是机械性地重复这件枯燥的事件，但是我们的机器人却可以每天不断地这样做，所以我们的农场可以很轻松地扩大规模。在城市环境下，Iron Ox正寻求在美国各地扩张。我们目前专注于B2B，此外还向当地厨师和餐馆销售产品，为当地社区服务，并将我们的部分产品捐赠给当地食品行。随着我们的产品不断做大，我们正在考虑将其覆盖全国，在每个大城市之外建立农场，以便更好地为他们提供当地的高质量农产品。类似的实验室也曾尝试过这项举动，但是并未成功，然而Iron Ox希望证明这类初创企业是可以获得成功的。

1 navigates   

v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的第三人称单数 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃

参考例句：

• Dolpins also navigates by some kind of echo system. 原来海豚也是借助某种回声系统寻向的。 来自辞典例句
• Navigates in menus, lists, choice screens and into edited texts. 可以操纵菜单、列表、屏幕选项和进入编辑文本。 来自互联网

2 autonomously   

adv. 自律地，自治地

参考例句：

• To learn autonomously in the network environment is totally new to students. 基于网络环境下的自主学习对学生来说，是一种全新的学习方式。
• The QC-RS can operate autonomously or by remote control. QC-RS能实现自动操作或通过遥控来操作。

3 module   

n.组件，模块，模件；(航天器的)舱

参考例句：

• The centre module displays traffic guidance information.中央模块显示交通引导信息。
• Two large tanks in the service module held liquid oxygen.服务舱的两个大气瓶中装有液态氧。

4 modules   

n.模块( module的名词复数 )；单元；（宇宙飞船上各个独立的）舱；组件

参考例句：

• The course consists of ten core modules and five optional modules. 这门课程包括十个必修单元和五个选修单元。
• Our English course is divided into modules on poetry, drama, and novels. 我们的英语课分为诗歌、戏剧和小说等单元。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 seedlings   

n.刚出芽的幼苗( seedling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Ninety-five per cent of the new seedlings have survived. 新栽的树苗95%都已成活。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• In such wet weather we must prevent the seedlings from rotting. 这样的阴雨天要防止烂秧。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 lettuce   

n.莴苣；生菜

参考例句：

• Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿，我好做色拉。
• The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。

7 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。