上次在一个帖子中有社友建议我定期向必威APP精装版下载搬运一些英语原文资讯，我觉得这个想法非常好，今天试水一篇。
) p$ B; [5 {4 \( ]8 S这篇文章是从三菱重工的英文官网获取的，主要讲了日本人形机器人的发展历程和取得的成果，里面举了2个很有代表性的例子：PEPPER和WAKAMARU
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为了降低阅读难度，我把本文的关键词、生僻词释义给出：2 u1 h3 _( g8 d$ o: k
ASTRO BOY 铁臂阿童木；HUMANOID 仿人的，类人型的；mechatronic 机电一体化的；facility 能力 设备
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The helpful humanoids( l1 \5 |* K8 n: r4 i. h* Z' u( F
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When Japan welcomes millions of foreign travelers for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, one thing the visitors will see apart from the world’s best athletes is the world’s best robots. It may sound like the realization of countless science-fiction fantasies, but humanoid robots are now quite commonplace in big cities like Tokyo. This is a dream that was long in the making.
2020年东京奥运会与残奥会，日本将迎来数以百万计的外国游客，人们来到这里不仅仅能欣赏世界上最棒的运动员，还能见识到世界上最棒的机器人。这听起来像是无数科幻小说的场景，但是人形机器人在东京这样的大城市已经变得稀松平常，这是一个长期以来一直在实现的梦想。
Japan was earned itself the moniker of the ‘Robot Kingdom’ after it invested heavily in factory automation technology in the postwar period. Industrial robot arms began turning out everything from toilet bowls to car parts, creating titans of the industry, such as FANUC, in the process as Japan became one of the most heavily automated societies in the world.
在战后投入大量人力物力发展自动化技术之后，今天的日本已经被誉为“机器人王国”。工业机器人手臂可以生产从抽水马桶到汽车零件的任何产品，并诞生了像发那科这样的工业巨头，在此期间，日本也逐渐成为世界上举足轻重的工业自动化强国。
Over the past few decades, however, the engineers who helped build this manufacturing powerhouse turned their thoughts to the sci-fi stories of their youth, and dreamed of creating robots that looked and acted like humans. A template for this was Astro Boy, a super-powerful robot boy portrayed by manga legend Osamu Tezuka as a champion of humanity. Honda’s sophisticated humanoid robot Asimo, first shown off in 2000, is part of this tradition.
然而，在过去几十年里，兢兢业业建立这个制造业大国的工程师们，同样将注意力投入到年少时读过的科幻故事中，并通过发明制造人形机器人来实现儿时的梦想。其中的典型就是铁臂阿童木——日本漫画大师手冢治虫笔下的超能机器人男孩。本田2000年发布的人形机器人Asimo就脱胎于此。
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Just add pepper
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The air was thick with the legacy of Astro Boy when Masayoshi Son, CEO of telecommunications giant SoftBank, stepped onto a darkened stage outside Tokyo in June 2014, and held up what looked like a glowing heart. This he presented to a 120-centimeter-tall humanoid robot standing next to him, and it immediately came to life, lighting up and introducing itself in a high-pitched voice as ‘Pepper’.
当通信行业巨头软银公司的CEO孙正义，在2014年6月步入东京一个黑暗的会场，举起一个像跳动的心脏一样的机器人时，空气中充满了阿童木的气息。这个120cm高的仿人机器人就站在孙正义身边，它一瞬间活动了起来，浑身发亮并且用一个高分贝的声音自我介绍为‘PEPPER’。
The robot is designed to be a communication robot that can help out in the home or workplace; it is also expected to help monitor Japan’s growing population of elderly based on information provided by the market. Developed by SoftBank Robotics Corp., Pepper has two arms, a 10.1-inch touchscreen display on its chest, audio, visual and tactile sensors and a wheeled base called omni-wheel for locomotion. It can retrieve weather forecasts from the Internet, play word games and do dance routines, and able to add new functions from the web by downloading ‘Robo Apps.’ It’s also billed as the first robot of its kind that can read human emotions and develop its own feelings to make it a better companion.
这个机器人被设计成一个可以在家或工作场所提供帮助的交流型机器人，它也被寄予厚望在市场条件允许的基础上去帮助监管日本日益增长的老龄化人群。经过软银机器人公司的研发，PEPPER有了两个手臂，一个10.1英寸的触摸屏在胸部，以及听觉、视觉、触觉传感器和一个被称为全向轮的轮式底座来进行移动。它可以通过网络检索天气预报，玩文字游戏和跳常规的舞蹈，也能通过网络下载机器人APP来增加新的功能。它被号称为第一个能感知人类心情的机器人，并可以发展自己情感以提供更好的陪伴体验。
We want to have a robot that will maximize people’s joy and minimize their sadness,” Son said while presenting Pepper to journalists. Since its commercial debut in 2015, priced at about $9,500 for a three-year period, thousands of Pepper robots have been sold, both to households and businesses. Companies have adopted the ‘Pepper for Biz’ model, which is priced at about $540 a month. They have been using the robot to help promote everything from smartphones and coffee makers to financial products and tourist destinations.
“我们希望能有一个机器人可以最大化人类的快乐，最小化人类的悲伤”，孙正义对记者说道。自PEPPER在2015年商业亮相以来，这个标价为9500美元的机器人，在三年时间内，售出了上千台，包括家用的和商用的。很多公司采用‘PEPPER’做商业模特，一个月租金为540美元。也有很多人利用PEPPER进行营销，从智能手机和咖啡机，再到金融产品和旅游景点。
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Pepper can now be seen at electronics retailers, hotel lobbies, trade shows, and more. Meanwhile, dozens of apps for Pepper have been developed, with themes ranging from storytelling to cooking tips. The robot recently began support for Google’s Android operating system, opening up even more possibilities, especially through the help of developers.
在旅馆大厅，贸易展厅和其他更多地方，‘PEPPER’现在也被当做一个电子产品零售商。同时许多针对‘PEPPER’的APP被开发出来，功能包括从讲故事到烹饪技巧等等，应有尽有。PEPPER最近开始支持谷歌的安卓操作系统，展现了更多的可能性，尤其是在开发者们的帮助下。"
Eager to please
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A decade before the birth of Pepper, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries unveiled Wakamaru, a humanoid robot for home use. With a bright yellow exterior by industrial designer Toshiyuki Kita, Wakamaru had ultrasound and infrared sensors to help it avoid obstacles as well as an LED indicator on its chest that showed its “feelings.” Wakamaru could recognize 10,000 words in Japanese and family members’ faces. It could also retrieve weather forecasts, emails and other information from the Internet and autonomously recharge itself when its battery was low.
在PEPPER诞生的十年前，三菱重工推出家用人形机器人WAKAMARU。由工业设计师喜多俊之设计的亮黄色外表，Wakamaru凭借超声波和红外传感器来躲避障碍，同时其胸部
的LED指示灯则显示它的“喜怒哀乐”。WAKAMARU可以识别10000个日语单词及家庭成员的面部。它还可以检索天气预报，电子邮件和其他从互联网获取的信息，并且能在电量低的时候进行自动充电。
Although Wakamaru, now retired, was ahead of its time in that it came before the boom in smartphones and apps, it helped pave the way for later humanoids like Pepper. Another robot that exemplifies the union of mechatronics and smartphones in literal fashion is RoBoHon. Commercialized by Sharp, the anime-inspired, pint-sized droid is both robot and 3G/LTE smartphone. It can walk around, move its arms and head and serve as a personal assistant, for instance reading out messages and reminding users of calendar events like someone’s birthday. Small enough to fit in a pocket and weighing only 390 grams, the cloud-connected RoboHon can project images and video on nearby surfaces and can bid its user good night before bed and good morning when he or she wakes up (thanks to its alarm function). With its cute looks, squeaky voice and desire to please, it’s hard not to see RoBoHon like a little person.
虽然Wakamaru现在退休了，但是在智能手机和应用的繁荣之前横空出世的它是一个跨时代的产品，它为像PEPPER一样的后来者铺平了道路。另一个机器人RoBoHon，充分体现了机电一体化和智能手机的完美结合。它由夏普进行商业化，启发自动画，机器人和3G / LTE智能手机拢共也就一品脱大小。它可以走动，移动它的手臂和头部，并作为一个私人助理，可以读取消息，并提醒用户的日历事件例如好友生日。它的重量只有390克，小到可以放在口袋里，云连接状态下的robohon可以在就近平台上展示图片和视频，并在晚上睡前和早上起床后问候主人（得益于闹钟功能）。其可爱的外表，吱吱的声音和友好的倾向，让人很难把RoBoHon不当人看。
“I saw people carrying their smartphones around and thought that would be a great idea to combine with a robot,” says designer Tomotaka Takahashi, whose other anime-inspired creations include Kirobo, an astro-droid that traveled to the International Space Station in 2013. Priced at $1,935, RoBoHon was one of several desktop humanoids on display last December at the iREX robotics trade show in Tokyo. Palro and Palmi, developed by telecommunications and software firm Fujisoft, can walk around, hold conversations with users and run cloud applications. While the $2,900 Palmi is aimed at households and kids, the more sophisticated $6,500 Palro is for use in seniors’ homes.
“我看到人们到处拿着手机，想到要是能把智能机与机器人结合起来就再好不过了，”设计师高桥智隆说，他的其他由动漫启发的作品，包括KIRIBO，一个航天机器人，在2013前往了国际空间站。售价1935美元，RoBoHon是去年十二月在东京iRex技术贸易展上，可以在桌面上展示的机器人之一。富士软件研发的机器人PALRO和PALMI，则可以到处走动，并能保持与用户的对话和运行云应用。针对家庭主妇和孩子的PALMI售价为2900美元，更复杂的用于老年人家园的机器人需要6500美元。
Along with Paro the robot seal, Palro is already being used in dozens of care facilities in Japan, where it tries to engage residents in verbal entertainment and calisthenics routines. Somewhat cheaper is the $1,350 Premaid AI from DMM, a 46-centimeter-tall, smartphone-controlled hobby robot that can do dance routines. Unibo is yet another personal desktop robot launching this year. Inspired by the popular anime and manga robot Doraemon, Unibo has a large head evoking computer monitors of yesteryear.
继承了Paro海豹机器人的优良传统，PALRO已经被用于日本的几十个尝试转型为娱乐休闲和居民锻炼的保健设施。比较便宜的是1350美元的DMM premaid AI，一个46厘米高，可以做舞蹈动作的，智能手机控制的机器人。unibo是另一个今年发布的桌面机器人。取材于最受欢迎的动漫机器人哆啦A梦，unibo有个可以唤起昔日记忆的大大的电脑显示器脑袋。
This latest generation of personal robots can be seen as smartphones with arms and legs. The more successfully designed ones can convey a sense of charm, even personality. With improvements to artificial intelligence and servomotor design for arms and hands, they may soon be able to perform minor household chores such as tidying up, increasing their appeal. In the tradition of Astro Boy, these mechatronic companions are helping support society while earning our friendship.
这种最新一代的个人机器人可以被视为拥有四肢的智能手机。其中的集大成者可以传达一种情感，甚至个性。随着人工智能伺服手臂和手臂设计的改进，机器人们很快就可以完成诸如整理小家务之类的人物，来增加自己的吸引力。在铁臂阿童木漫画里，这些机电同伴帮助社会建设并赢得了我们的友谊。
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今天这篇文章虽然看起来长，但是难度不高，大概是大学四级的水平。
大家可以尝试翻译一下，将译文贴在回复中（可以是其中一段，其中一句）。作业做得好的同学，奖励威望。
PS.不鼓励使用机器翻译哦~
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发表于 2016-9-18 16:26:45
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