中英對照讀新聞》apanese robot can peel bananas cleanly日本機器人可以俐落地剝香蕉皮

◎國際新聞中心

Robots in Japan are found on factory floors carrying out simple tasks or delivering food to restaurant patrons but researchers have now unveiled a robot capable of executing the delicate task of peeling a banana without squashing the fruit inside.

日本的機器人常見到在工廠裡執行簡單的工作或是分送食物給餐廳顧客，但研究人員如今展示一種機器人，它能夠執行剝香蕉皮且不會壓壞裡面水果的細緻工作。

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While the dual-armed machine is only successful 57% of the time, banana peeling points to a future where machines undertake more subtle operations than moving metal parts or delivering coffee.

雖然這種雙臂機器只有57%的時間是成功的，但剝香蕉皮顯示未來機器能夠從事比搬運金屬零件或送上咖啡更精巧的行動。

Video from researchers at the University of Tokyo showed the robot pick up and peel a banana with both hands in about three minutes.

東京大學研究人員的影片顯示，這款機器人用雙手在3分鐘內撿起一根香蕉並完成剝皮。

Researchers Heecheol Kim, Yoshiyuki Ohmura and Yasuo Kuniyoshi trained the robot using a "deep imitation learning" process where they demonstrated the banana-peeling action hundreds of times to produce sufficient data for the robot to learn the actions and replicate it.

研究人員金希哲、大村吉幸和國吉康夫利用「深度模仿學習」過程訓練機器人，他們展示剝香蕉皮的動作好幾百次來產生足夠的資料給機器人學習並複製這個動作。

Yasuo Kuniyoshi hopes the better-trained robots can alleviate Japan’s labour shortage problems, for example at bento lunch box or food processing factories that are highly dependent on human labour.

國吉康夫希望這些訓練有素的機器人可以減緩日本的勞動力短缺問題，例如在高度依賴人力的便當店或食品加工廠。

新聞辭典

cleanly：副詞，乾淨地、整齊地、俐落地。形容詞，愛清潔的、乾淨的。例句：A sharp knife will cut through the skin of a tomato cleanly. （一把利刀可以俐落地切開蕃茄皮。）

squash：動詞，壓壞、壓碎、鎮壓、擠進。例句：We can probably squash another couple of things in.（我們或許可以把另外幾件事情擠進去。）

bento： 名詞，便當。例句：When packed right, a bento box looks like a delicious work of art.（如果包裝得當，便當盒看起來會像一件美味的藝術品。）