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Robots at Work 让机器人替你上班

详细资料: 创建于 2011年1月14日; 最后更新于 2024年5月25日; 发布于 2013年9月22日; 作者：Mike Lee; 点击数：185

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New robots give absent workers presence in the office 在不在没关系，新式机器人摇身一变为上班族的办公室分身

Late one July night, California Fire Captain Verne Chestnut and his crew were checking out a fire alarm at an office building when he saw movement inside. Worried that someone might be trapped, he took a closer look.

七月一个深夜，加州消防队长维恩．却斯纳和队员在查看一栋办公大楼的消防警报时，发现大楼内有动静，他担心可能有人被困在里面，于是进一步仔细检查。

What he saw was not a person but a robot, and it was waiting at the front door, as if to greet them. After the fire crew got inside, the robot followed them as they inspected the building. And after they finally succeeded in shutting off the alarm, it spoke to them.

结果他看到的并不是真人，而是机器人，而且机器人就等在前门，彷佛是来迎接他们。消防队员进入大楼检查时，机器人亦步亦趋地跟着。等他们终于成功关掉消防警报后，机器人居然开口对他们说话。

“It was just like, ‘You’re kidding!’” said Chestnut. “It was definitely different being met by a robot.”

「那让人觉得，『这也太扯了吧！』」队长却斯纳表示，「被机器人招呼的感觉完全不同。」

Chestnut quickly learned that the voice of the robot belonged to Trevor Blackwell, the CEO of Anybots, the robot-making company whose alarm has sounded. Blackwell, on vacation in Hawaii, was controlling the robot over the Internet. And if he’s right, robots like the ones his company makes are about to become commonplace.

却斯纳很快就知道，机器人的声音是Anybots公司执行长崔佛．布莱克威尔的声音，发出消防警报的正是这家机器人制造公司。布莱克威尔正在夏威夷度假，他透过因特网遥控机器人。如果他的预料没错，类似Anybots公司所生产的这一类机器人，不久就会变得司空见惯。

Entering the mainstream 跃升主流

Anybot’s QB model is just one of a group of new remote-controlled robots now hitting the market. Employing communications technologies similar to Skype and robotic technologies akin to those found in robots used to explore Mars or help defuse bombs in Iraq, the new robots cost far less than their predecessors and are designed for more ordinary uses.

Anybots公司的QB型机器人，只是目前已上市的各种新型遥控机器人之一。这类新型机器人，应用类似Skype的通讯科技、以及用在探索火星或是在伊拉克协助拆除炸弹的类机器人科技，所花费成本远低于之前款型，而且是偏向于日常用途而设计。

Blackwell, who founded Anybots nine years ago, said the $15,000 QB can inspect warehouses or factories remotely or provide tech support. Security firms are also likely to be interested, said Jackie Fenn, an analyst who covers emerging trends. If security guards see something suspicious on a video camera, they could send in a robot to get a closer view, rather than having to go out and inspect it themselves.

在九年前创立Anybots公司的布莱克威尔指出，QB机器人的售价为一万五千美元，可以用摇控的方式，让QB机器人检查仓库或工厂、或是提供技术支持。研究新兴趋势的分析师洁姬．芬恩表示，保全公司对这种机器人可能也会有兴趣，如果保全人员在摄影机上看到可疑的人事物，他们不必亲自出马，派遣机器人前去仔细查看即可。

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trap [træp] v. 使落入圈套（或困境）

shut off 关掉, 切断 to stop the flow or passage of; cut off

sound [saʊnd] v. 发声，响起 to cause to give forth or produce a sound

defuse [diˋfjuz] v. 拆去……的雷管

cover [ˋkʌvɚ] v. 采访，报导 to act as reporter or photographer on (a news event, etc.) for a newspaper or magazine

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Discovering new uses 发现新用途

The declining prices for telepresence robots will encourage experimentation among companies and entrepreneurs, who will find new uses for them, say analysts. QB and similar robots could eventually be used to let consumers preview houses or hotels from afar, to allow disabled people to virtually visit tourist destinations, or to help fashion experts, from the comfort of their homes, give sartorial consultations to consumers at clothing stores across the country. Already, QB is undergoing testing by NASA and Wolfram Research founder Stephen Wolfram.

分析师表示，远程临场机器人的价格持续降低，会鼓励公司与企业主多方试验，找出机器人的新用途。QB之类的机器人，最终可用来让消费者从远程预览房屋或是饭店内部，让行动不便者虚拟游览观光景点，或是协助时尚专家轻松地从家中为全国各地服饰店的消费者提供服装咨询。QB机器人现在正由美国太空总署及沃夫朗研发公司创办人史蒂芬．沃夫朗进行测试中。

For now, Anybots is pitching the QB to companies with remote workers. Currently executives of those companies often meet with remote workers via video or teleconferences, or by having them fly in to the main office. But Blackwell argues that QB is a better solution because managers don’t have to coordinate schedules so everyone is in the same place at the same time. Also, it allows users to wander around and have the more informal conversations they might have if they were actually in the office.

Anybots公司目前向有外地员工的公司推销QB机器人，这些公司的高阶主管现在与外地员工会面，都是藉由影像、视频会议、或是要他们搭飞机到总部来。但布莱克威尔认为，QB机器人是比较理想的解决之道，因为主管们不必刻意乔时间好让所有人能够同时出现在同一个地方。此外，有了QB机器人，使用者也能到处走走，比起本人到办公室去，大家说起话来可能比较不会那么严肃。

Not quite perfect … yet 尚未尽善尽美

In the near term at least, the range of applications for QB and similar rivals will be limited by their lack of arms to manipulate things in their environments. Arms are a challenge because they make the robots more expensive, more difficult to use and less stable, analysts say.

QB这类机器人因缺乏在环境中操作的机械手臂，至少在近期来说，用途范围将暂受局限。分析师表示，机械手臂会使机器人的造价更高、使用上更困难、更不稳定，因此是一大挑战。

QB has some other shortcomings as well. Users can’t tilt its head up or down, so it can be difficult to see something that’s not at the robot’s eye level. Its “neck” can be raised or lowered to a different height, but that can’t be done remotely by the operator. And QB has only one eye-level camera and can’t move its head side to side, so its peripheral vision is narrow.

QB机器人也有其缺点。使用者无法让机器人抬头或低头，因此要让机器人看见非平视范围内的事物会有困难。机器人的「脖子」可以调整高低，但操作者无法以遥控的方式达成。而且QB机器人只有一个平视摄影机，无法将头转向两侧，所以周边视野相当狭隘。

Those limitations haven’t dimmed the excitement of tester Wolfram. Slated to give a talk at an event, Wolfram has a QB stand in for him.

然而这些限制并不会让测试者沃夫朗的兴奋之情略减。沃夫朗预计将在一项活动中演说，而届时他正是让QB机器人当自己的替身。

－by Troy Wolverton

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