Robots， becoming increasingly prevalent in factories and industrial plants throughout the world， are programmed and engineered to perform industrial tasks without human intervention. Many of today’s robots are employed in the automotive industry， where they are programmed to take over such jobs as welding and spray painting automobile and truck bodies.

機(jī)器人在全世界的工廠內(nèi)日益普及，人們對(duì)它們進(jìn)行編程和設(shè)計(jì)，使其在無人情況下執(zhí)行工業(yè)任務(wù)。現(xiàn)今，許多機(jī)器人用于汽車工業(yè)，人們對(duì)其編程，從事如汽車和卡車車身焊接、噴漆之類的工作。

What makes a robot a robot and not just another kind of automatic machine？ Robots differ from automatic machines in that after completion of one specific task， they can be reprogrammed by a computer to do another one. As an example， a robot doing spot welding one month can be reprogrammed and switched to spray painting the next. Automatic machines， on the other hand， are not capable of many different uses; they are built to perform only one task.

是什么使機(jī)器人變成機(jī)器人而不是其他的自動(dòng)化機(jī)器呢？機(jī)器人與自動(dòng)化機(jī)器的區(qū)別在于：機(jī)器人完成一項(xiàng)特定工作后，它們可以被電腦重新編程去執(zhí)行另一項(xiàng)任務(wù)。比如，一個(gè)機(jī)器人做了一個(gè)月的點(diǎn)焊，可以被重新編程，并在下個(gè)月轉(zhuǎn)向噴漆。相反，自動(dòng)化機(jī)器卻沒有許多不同的用途，它們只能執(zhí)行一項(xiàng)任務(wù)。

The next generation of robots will make critical decisions. These future robots will have plenty of work to do. They will work as gas station attendants， firemen， housekeepers， and security personnel. Anyone wanting to understand the industry of the future will have to know about robotics.

下一代機(jī)器人將能做出關(guān)鍵性的決定。未來的機(jī)器人將會(huì)做大量工作。它們可以做加油站服務(wù)人員、消防人員、房屋管理員和安全人員的工作。任何想了解未來工業(yè)的人必須懂得機(jī)器人技術(shù)。

3199501908212