学习英语音频:开发机器人制造服装

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科技公司正在开发制造服装的机器人。使用机器人或计算机进行人类工作的过程被称为自动化，这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.

尤根·索洛沃（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.

他说：“服装业是最后一个尚未实现自动化的万亿美元产业。”。

The worldwide clothing market is estimated to be worth $1.52 trillion, the independent research group Statista says.

独立研究机构Statista表示，全球服装市场估计价值1.52万亿美元。

Supply chain issues

供应链一系列问题

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.

在疫情期间，使用机器人来增加美国制造业的想法越来越流行。新冠肺炎干扰了世界各地的供应链，凸显了使用遥远的工厂带来的风险。

But moving clothing manufacturing back to Western markets, including the United States, is a sensitive issue.

但将服装制造业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.

许多服装公司对公开讨论自动化并不确定。这些报告将引起公众的担忧，即自动化将抢走穷国工人的工作。

One industry inventor, Jonathan Zornow, said he has received online criticism, and a death threat, in connection with his work.

行业发明家乔纳森·佐诺表示，他在网上收到了与他的工作有关的批评和死亡威胁。

Fabric problem

织物问题

Sewing - the act of using a needle and thread to make clothes - is especially difficult to automate.

缝纫——用针和线缝制衣服的行为——尤其难以自动化。

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.

机器人没有人类手所具备的精细触摸技能。接受路透社采访的五名研究人员表示，机器人正在变得更好，但要充分发展其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.

但目前的研究工作还着眼于通过机器完成足够的工作量，以缩小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表示，在西门子的工作主要是努力开发软件来指导机器人，这些机器人可以处理所有类型的材料，例如细线电缆。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机器人制造（ARM）研究所合作。他们确定了旧金山的一家公司，该公司有一种很有希望的方法来解决织物问题。初创公司Sewbo股份有限公司用化学物质使织物变硬。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.

Sewbo的发明者Zornow说：“几乎每一块牛仔布都是在制作完成后清洗的，所以这符合现有的生产系统。”。

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，包括李维斯和Bluewater Defense LLC，一家总部位于美国的小型军用服装制造商。他们从ARM研究所获得了150万美元的资金，用于试验这项技术。

Other efforts

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厂自动化。佐治亚州的一家初创公司软件自动化公司（Software Automation Inc）开发了一种缝纫机，例如可以通过将布料拉到一张特殊的桌子来缝制衣服。

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.

Sanjeev Bahl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，他研究了Sewbo机器。他正准备建立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.

在9月份的工厂里，他说许多缝纫工作都准备好了新工艺。

“If it works,” he said, “I think there’s no reason not to have large-scale (jeans) manufacturing here in the U.S. again.”

“如果可行，”他说，“我认为没有理由不在美国再次大规模生产牛仔裤。”

I’m John Russell.