(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Technology Report.
Many teachers believe that hands-on experiences is the best way to learn. A group of students in the United Sates is putting that belief to the test.
The students are with the Stevens Institute of Technology, in Hoboken, New Jersey. They successfully designed and built a robot for uncovering unexploded mines at the bottom of the sea. The technology students made the robot to answer a challenge from the U.S. Department of Defense.
The underwater vehicle is called Perseus II. The students recently tested Perseus II in a 95-meter-long tank of water at the Stevens Institute of Technology.
The robot costs about $15,000 to build. The students use a video game controller to direct its movements at the bottom of the tank. Devices known as thrusters enable the robot to go up, down and toward its target in the water.
Video cameras on the robot send images back to a computer through a 13-meter-long cable. Perseus II also has a set of lasers, they are used to measure the size of an object.
The robot is the creation of five undergraduate students. For over six months, they worked between 15 and 20 hours a week, to design and build Perseus II.
Michael DeLorne supervised the project. He says the specialized requirements of robot were demanding.
"Their goal was to go down and find this unexploded ordnance and not only just find them but provide information to an expert on the surface so he or she could make a decision whether it was something dangerous or not," DeLorne said.
Michael DeLorne says the students came up with some resourceful solutions for difficult problems, one such problem was how to control the position of the robot while underwater.
"One unique thing they did, they developed an algorithm that allowed them to autonomously control the vehicle's depth," DeLorne said.
Mark Siembab is a member of the Perseus II team. He says the team developed a low cost method to mark the location of whatever object they found.
"One component sank to the bottom and anchored itself while the other component had a brightly-colored orange ball which would float to the surface and provide a positive identification to the passerby or the authorities to let them know there's an object down there and we'd marked it," Siembab said.
Perseus II was successfully tested in Florida with similar robots built at other engineering schools. In a separate development, new students at the Stevens Institute of Technology have already started on the next project. It is an unmanned flying vehicle they are calling Perseus III.
And that's the Technology Report from VOA Learning English. I'm Jonathan Evans.
词汇解释
1.hands-on adj. 亲身实践的，亲自动手的
This hands-on management approach often stretches his workday from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
这种事必躬亲的管理方法常常使他在工作日从早晨6:00一直工作到晚上11:00。
2.algorithm n. [计][数] 算法，运算法则
Let us start with an immediate consequence of the algorithm.
我们先提出该运算法则的一个直接推论。
3.anchor n. 锚；抛锚停泊；靠山；新闻节目主播 vt. 抛锚；使固定；主持节目 vi. 抛锚 adj. 末棒的；最后一棒的
The ship dragged her anchor.
船拖曳着它的锚。
4.resourceful adj. 资源丰富的；足智多谋的；机智的
He was amazingly inventive and resourceful, and played a major role in my career.
他极具创造力又足智多谋，在我的职业生涯中起了重要的作用。
内容解析
1.Michael DeLorne says the students came up with some resourceful solutions for difficult problems,
come up with 提出；想出；赶上
I came up with them as they were rounding the corner.
他们正在拐弯时，我赶上了他们。
We weren't able to come up with any new suggestions.
我们提不出任何新建议。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语科技报道。
很多老师认为，实践操作是最好的学习方法。美国一群学生正在检验这一说法。
这些学生来自新泽西州霍博肯市的史蒂文斯理工学院，他们成功设计并制造了能发现海底未爆炸地雷的机器人，这些科技学生们制造这台机器人来响应国防部面临的一个挑战。
这台水下机器被称作柏修斯2号，学生们最近在史蒂文斯理工学院一个95米长的水箱中对柏修斯2号进行了测试。
制造这台机器需要耗资大约1.5万美元，学生们使用视频游戏控制器指挥其在水箱底部移动，推进型使机器人能上下并朝着水中物体移动。
机器人上的摄像头通过一根13米长的电缆将图像传回电脑，柏修斯2号还有一组激光器，用于测量物体的大小。
这台机器人是5名本科生的作品，在6个月内，他们每周工作15到20小时来设计和制作柏修斯2号。
迈克尔·德洛尔负责监督该项目，他说这台机器人需要很高的专业水平。
“他们的目标是潜水中找到未爆炸的地雷，不仅找到它们，还给地面的专家提供信息，这样专家就能判断地雷是否具有危险性。”
迈克尔·德洛尔说学生们为解决难题想出了各种各样的办法，其中一个难题就是如何控制水下机器人的位置。
“他们做的独创性的事情就是开发了一种算法，这种算法让他们能自动控制机器人的深度。”
马克·森巴布是柏修斯2号研发团队成员，他说本团队开发出低成本确定所发现物体位置的方法。
“机器人的一个部件会沉入水底然后固定住，然后安装了橙色气球的另一个部件会漂浮到水面，给有关人员辨认并让他们知道下面有物体，而且机器人已经对物体进行了标记。”
柏修斯2号同佛罗里达州其他工程学校制造的类似机器人一起进行了测试，另一方面，史蒂文斯理工学院新生们已经开始进行下一个项目，就是名为柏修斯3号的无人飞行器。
这就是美国之音慢速英语科技报道，我是乔纳森·伊万斯。
