仓库机器人学会整理棘手材料

机器人变得越来越聪明，它们不仅局限于一直重复的动作，而且学会了思考与判断。将来，人类的工作是否会大规模由机器人进行呢？

难词探意

1. fetch /fet?/ v. （去）拿来;（去）取来

2. crate /kre?t/ n. 板条箱

3. conveyor /k?n?ve??（r）/ n. 运送者;传送者

4. socket /?s?k?t/ n. （电源）插座

At the facility outside Berlin， inside a fenced?off room larger than a football field， robots have long been used to fetch large boxes from shelves several stories high. Warehouses are already highly automated. Engineers can program a robot to perform the same motion over and over again. The boxes are uniform and a robot can pick them up with the same motion every time. Programming a robotic arm to deal with every situation， one rule at a time was impossible before.

However， Covariant， which is working with Knapp， built software that could learn through trial and error. The robot could continue to learn as it sorted through items it had never seen before.

Therefore， inside a warehouse on the outskirts of Berlin， a long line of blue crates moved down a conveyor belt， carrying light switches， sockets and other electrical parts. As they came to a stop， a robot used three suction cups at the end of its long arm sift through parts with surprising speed and accuracy. The robot can pick and sort more than 10，000 different items， and it does this with more than 99% accuracy.

Because the online retail business is growing so quickly and most companies will be slow to adopt the latest robotic technologies， economists believe the advances will not cut into the overall number of jobs anytime soon. But the engineers building these technologies admit that at some point most warehouse tasks will be done by machines. Human workers will need to find other things to do.

Knapp said they would charge a fee that was always lower than what a company would pay a human. “If a company paid $40，000 per year to a worker， I would charge about $30，000，” he said. And for Obeta， the new robot is an ideal solution. A job that requires three men is done by one tireless robot. “It doesnt smoke， is always in good health， isnt chatting with its neighbors and has no toilet breaks，” Mr Jandura， the managing director of Obeta， said. “Its more efficient.”

[Reading][Check]

1. Whats the biggest advantage of the warehouse robot according to the context？

2. What will be the challenge for human workers？

3. Why is the new robot an ideal solution for Obeta？

[Language][Study]

Difficult sentence

At the facility outside Berlin， inside a fenced?off room larger than a football field， robots have long been used to fetch large boxes from shelves several stories high.

【翻译】

【点石成金】本句中，have been used to do意为“一直被用于做某事”。其中“主语+has/have+been+过去分词”是现在完成时的被动语的结构;be used to do sth 意为“被用于做某事”。