2022年12月16日 VOA慢速英语：公司开发机器人做衣服

 

Large clothing and technology companies, including Siemens AG and Levi Strauss & Co., are developing robots to make clothes. The process of using robots or computers for human work, known as automation, has raised concerns about jobs for many people around the world.
包括西门子股份公司和李维斯公司在内的大型服装和技术公司正在开发机器人来制作衣服。使用机器人或计算机从事人类工作的过程，即所谓的自动化，引起了世界各地许多人对工作的担忧。
 
Eugen Solowjow heads an automated clothes manufacturing project at a Siemens lab in San Francisco.
Eugen Solowjow 在旧金山的西门子实验室负责一个自动化服装制造项目.
 
"Clothing is the last trillion-dollar industry that hasn't been automated," he said.
“服装是最后一个未实现自动化的万亿美元产业，”他说。
 
The worldwide clothing market is estimated to be worth $1.52 trillion, the independent research group Statista says.
全球服装市场估计价值 1.52 万亿美元，独立研究小组 Statista 说。
 
Supply chain issues
供应链问题
 
The idea of using robots to increase manufacturing in the United States grew more popular during the pandemic. COVID-19 interfered with supply chains around the world, highlighting the risk of using distant factories.
在大流行期间，使用机器人来增加美国制造业的想法变得更加流行。 COVID-19 干扰了世界各地的供应链，凸显了使用远距离工厂的风险。
 
But moving clothing manufacturing back to Western markets, including the United States, is a sensitive issue.
但是将服装制造转移回包括美国在内的西方市场是一个敏感问题。
 
Many clothing companies are unsure about publicly discussing automation. Such reports would cause public concern that automation will take jobs from workers in poor countries.
许多服装公司对于公开讨论自动化并不确定。此类报道会引起公众的担忧，即自动化将夺走贫穷国家工人的工作。
 
One industry inventor, Jonathan Zornow, said he has received online criticism, and a death threat, in connection with his work.
一位行业发明家 Jonathan Zornow 表示，他在网上收到了与他的工作有关的批评和死亡威胁。
 
Fabric problem
布料问题
Sewing - the act of using a needle and thread to make clothes - is especially difficult to automate.
缝纫——用针和线做衣服的过程——尤其难以实现自动化。
 
Robots do not have the fine touch skill that human hands do. Robots are getting better, but it will take years to fully develop their ability to handle fabric, said five researchers questioned by Reuters.
机器人不具备人手所具备的精细触觉技能.接受路透社采访的五位研究人员表示，机器人正在变得越来越好，但要完全发展它们处理织物的能力还需要数年时间。
 
But current research efforts are also looking at doing just enough work by machine to close the cost difference between U.S. and foreign factories.
但目前的研究工作也在考虑让机器完成足够的工作美国和外国工厂之间的成本差异。
 
Work at Siemens grew out of efforts to create software to guide robots that could handle all types of materials, such as thin wire cables, said Solowjow. He added that researchers soon realized one of the best targets for automation was clothing.
Solowjow 说，西门子的工作源于努力创建软件来引导可以处理所有类型材料（例如细线电缆）的机器人。他补充说，研究人员很快意识到自动化的最佳目标之一是服装。
 
Siemens worked with the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute in Pittsburgh. They identified a San Francisco company with a promising way to deal with the fabric problem. The startup, Sewbo Inc., hardens, or stiffens, fabric with chemicals. The hardened fabric is then similar to other material robots can handle, like metal for example. Once the robots finish sewing the piece, the clothing is washed to remove the chemical.
西门子与匹兹堡的先进制造机器人 (ARM) 研究所合作。他们找到了一家旧金山公司，该公司有一种很有前途的方法来处理面料问题。这家名为 Sewbo Inc. 的初创公司使用化学品使织物变硬或变硬。硬化后的织物类似于机器人可以处理的其他材料，例如金属。一旦机器人完成缝纫，衣服就会被清洗以去除化学物质。
 
"Pretty much every piece of denim is washed after it's made anyway, so this fits into the existing production system," said Zornow, Sewbo's inventor.
“几乎每件牛仔布在制成后都会被清洗，所以这符合现有的生产方式
 
This research effort widened to include several clothing companies, including Levi's and Bluewater Defense LLC, a small U.S.-based maker of military clothes. They received $1.5 million in financing from the ARM Institute to experiment with the technique.
这项研究工作扩大到包括几家服装公司，包括 Levi's 和 Bluewater Defense LLC，这是一家总部位于美国的小型军装制造商。他们从 ARM 研究所获得了 150 万美元的资金来试验这项技术。
 
Other efforts
其他努力
 
There are other efforts to automate sewing factories. Software Automation Inc, a startup in Georgia, has developed a machine that can sew clothing by pulling the cloth over a special table, for example.
还有其他努力使缝纫工厂自动化。例如，佐治亚州的初创公司 Software Automation Inc 开发了一种机器，可以通过将布料拉到一张特殊的桌子上来缝制衣服。
 
Sanjeev Bahl, who opened a small jeans factory called Saitex in downtown Los Angeles two years ago , has studied the Sewbo machines. He is preparing to set up his first experimental machine.
两年前在洛杉矶市中心开了一家名为 Saitex 的小型牛仔裤工厂的 Sanjeev Bahl 研究了 Sewbo 机器。他正准备安装他的第一台实验机器。
 
At his factory in September, he said that many sewing jobs are ready for a new process.
9 月份在他的工厂里，他说许多缝纫工作已经为新工艺做好了准备。
 
"If it works," he said, "I think there's no reason not to have large-scale (jeans) manufacturing here in the U.S. again."
“如果它有效”他说，“我认为没有理由不在美国再次进行大规模（牛仔裤）生产。”