VOA慢速英语2016 机器人会替代食品行业中人的角色吗？

Will Robots Replace Humans in Food Industry? 机器人会替代食品行业中人的角色吗？

Would your pizza have a different taste if it were prepared by a robot?

这是为Zume披萨店工作的两个机器人之一。将沙司和其它馅料完全覆盖到饼胚上之后，机器人会将其放入烤箱中。

“We spend less money on repetitive labor 1, so things like slicing pepperoni or applying cheese.We automate 2 those repetitive tasks, so that we can spend more money on higher quality ingredients.”

“我们会减少在重复性劳动上的开销，例如把意大利辣香肠切成片或者在披萨饼上放芝士。通过将那些重复性工作实现自动化，我们就可以有更多的经费来购买更高品质的配料。”

“Your pizza, enjoy and have a great day.”“Thanks.”

“这是您的披萨，请慢用，祝您愉快。”“太感谢了。”

Customers like it.

顾客们很喜欢吃他们家的披萨。

“It’s delicious. It’s always hot and fresh when it comes.I mean it’s great that they’re making it, but I can’t tell the difference that it’s made by a robot versus 3 a human.”

“味道真挺不错的。他们家的披萨不管什么时候送到都是热的，而且还很新鲜。我是说他们现在这种模式非常棒，不过我还真是尝不出来机器人做的披萨跟人做的有什么区别。”

“Hmm. It’s delicious.”

“嗯，真不错。”

Zume’s biggest innovation is yet to come, a delivery truck equipped with 56 ovens.At precisely 4 three minutes, 15 seconds before arriving at the customer’s door, the pizza is popped in to bake.

Zume家最大的革新还没登场，那是一辆装有56台烤箱的运货车。在驶达顾客家中之前不多不少正好3分15秒时，工作人员会快速将披萨放入烤箱中。

The company also shortens delivery times by using software to anticipate when and what kind of pizzas customers will order.

公司还通过使用某种软件，提前获知人们什么时候会订哪种披萨，从而缩短配送时间。

Here Bistrobot, customers can watch machine put their meal together.“You can go buy a sandwich for a few dollars and you get to watch this really cool machine make you a sandwich.And it has all the other advantages:where it’s quicker, it’s cheaper, it’s more consistent, and it’s just this really fun experience to share with people.”

接下来要说的是Bistrobot，顾客可以直接看到这台机器将他们餐点放到一起。“你可以花几美元买个三明治，然后就可以看到这台超酷的机器给你制作食物的过程。它还有许多其它的优点：更快捷，更实惠，更一致，你真应该跟人们分享一下这次有趣的经历。”

Experts say this is a growing trend in the food industry,but they insist robots still struggle with tasks that require more refined motor skills.

专家表示，这是食品工业一种日益明显的趋势，不过他们强调说，因为有一些任务需要精细的动作技能，机器人在这时就会显出劣势。

“The research has been going on for 50 years.We’re making progress, but it’s still a challenge.So I want to reassure 5 restaurant workers that the skills that they have are still going to be of value.”

“对于机器人在食品工业中的研究已经进行了50年之久，我们在不断取得进展，不过这依然是一项挑战。因此我希望餐厅员工们能够放心，他们手中掌握的技术未来依然是有价值的。”

That means there’s still plenty of work left for humans to do.“We’re going to see a big change in the way that humans work again,but it’s going to have the same impact.We’re going to eliminate boring, repetitive, dangerous jobs and we’re going to free up people to do things that are higher value.There’s going to be amazing new ways of working that don’t exist yet that are going to be created.”

这意味着，需要人力去做的工作仍然有很多。“我们即将再一次见证人类工作方式的巨大变化，这次变化所产生的影响与以往相同。我们会砍掉那些无聊、重复性高以及有危险的工作岗位，从而将人们从这类任务中解脱出来，做一些具有更高价值的工作。未来将出现很多令人惊喜的新型工作方式，这些方式在如今社会中无迹可寻，不过很快就会被开发出来。”

So what we’re seeing here is just the beginning, and one thing to expect is more and more robots in the kitchen.

因此我们现在在这里见到的东西都仅仅是开始而已，同时我们也期待，越来越多的机器人能够出现在厨房中。

Words in This Story

start-up – n. a new business

ingredient – n. something that is part of any combination or mixture

automation – n. the practice of using machines, computers, etc., instead of people to do work

boring – adj. dull and uninteresting