科技資訊:新一代機器人將更像人類(下）

At Carnegie Mellon University, robotics professor David Bourne and some of his students are working on software that enables a robot to cope with uncertainty over where a part will be on the assembly table, and to experiment with ways to put things together until they find the optimum methods. Using this learning method, a robot at CMU is able to pick up a battery from various angles and, sometimes, snap it into a Blackberry-a job most people can do intuitively. As the software improves, robots will learn faster, Prof. Bourne says.

卡內基梅隆大學(Carnegie Mellon University)的機器人學教授戴維•伯恩(David Bourne)正帶領學生研發一款軟件，以便讓機器人有能力判斷應該把零部件放到什麼位置，並能夠探索不同的裝配方式以確定最優途徑。通過這種學習模式，卡內基梅隆大學研發的機器人可以從多個角度拾起一塊電池，有時候甚至能把電池裝到黑莓手機上。這項工作如果由人來做的話，應該是舉手之勞，但機器人若能完成實屬不易。伯恩教授表示，隨着軟件的不斷完善，機器人的學習能力還會加快。

Will robots be able to bring production of such things as the iPhone to America? "That's what we're working towards," Prof. Bourne said. "It's not going to happen instantly."

機器人的應用能夠促使iPhone這類電子產品的製造迴流到美國本土嗎？伯恩教授表示，"這正是我們的目標，但短期之內還無法實現。"

In another part of his lab, Prof. Bourne's students are working on sensors that allow a robot to show a human colleague where to place parts so the robot can assemble them.

在伯恩教授實驗室的另一處，他的學生們還在研究傳感器技術，以便讓機器人能在人類的指點下學會將一個零部件裝配到特定位置。

Rodney Brooks, a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology robotics professor who helped launch the Roomba home-vacuuming robot a decade ago as a founder of iRobot Corp., believes industrial robots need to be updated to not only be smaller and nimbler, but also easier to control.

羅德尼•布魯克斯(Rodney Brooks)以前是麻省理工學院(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)的機器人學教授，協助推出了Roomba家用清潔機器人，他在10年前創立了iRobot Corp.公司。布魯克斯認爲，工業機器人需要進一步的升級換代，不但要更小巧靈活，還要更易於控制。

His Boston-based start-up, Heartland Robotics Inc., plans to introduce its first robots later this year. Dr. Brooks says they will be affordable for small manufacturers and include controls more akin to an iPhone than a mainframe computer.

布魯克斯在波士頓新創的Heartland Robotics Inc.公司計劃於今年推出第一款機器人。他說這款機器人的價格將能爲小型製造商所接受，其控制界面不像大型計算機那樣複雜，而是接近iPhone式的簡潔方式。

Dr. Brooks refuses to say much about the machines but the goal is "to introduce robots into places that have not been automated before, making manufacturers more efficient, their workers more productive and keeping jobs from migrating to low-cost regions." He plans to make the robots in the U.S.

布魯克斯不願透露太多關於這款機器人的信息，但其目標是"讓機器人進入從未涉及過的領域，讓製造過程更有效率，提高工人產能，避免生產過程和就業崗位流向低成本國家。"布魯克斯打算在美國國內生產這款機器人。

One of Dr. Brooks's former students, Aaron Edsinger, has become a potential rival. When Mr. Edsinger was a doctoral student at MIT six years ago, he programmed a robot to help make a margarita. The point wasn't to replace bartenders but to show that a robot could deal with a somewhat unpredictable environment. Now Mr. Edsinger heads a San Francisco-based company, Redwood Robotics, trying to develop low-cost robot arms for manufacturing and other applications.

阿隆•艾幸格(Aaron Edsinger)曾是布魯克斯的學生，現在則成了布魯克斯的潛在競爭對手。六年前他在麻省理工學院攻讀博士學位時，曾給機器人編程，讓其調製一杯瑪格麗特雞尾酒(margarita)。這樣做的目的並非要讓機器人取代酒吧調酒師，而是顯示機器人能夠應付一些難以預測的複雜工作環境。如今，艾幸格是舊金山Redwood Robotics公司的負責人，公司正在研究低成本的機器人手臂，用於產品製造和其他一些應用領域。

In work partly funded by Boeing Co. (BA), Julie Shah, an assistant professor in the aeronautics department at MIT, is researching ways for robots to adapt to the differing work habits of human colleagues so they can jointly assemble airplane parts.

朱麗葉•莎(Julie Shah)是麻省理工學院的助教，她在從事一項由波音公司(Boeing Co.)資助的研究工作，尋找方法讓機器人適應人類同事的各種工作習慣，以便與人類協同，共同裝配飛機零部件。

The idea of people working hand in metal fist with robots "is becoming less like science fiction every year," Ms. Shah says. By James R. Hagerty and Miho Inada, The Wall Street Journal;

莎表示，人類和機器人協同作業的理念"正在遠離科幻小說的範疇，一年比一年變得更爲現實。"