家具生产新现象：机器人和人类工人“共同奋斗”

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: As technology advances and robots learn new tricks like folding laundry, it makes people wonder, is my job safe? That is the name of an NPR series that looks at how tech is changing our work, and today, furniture making. It’s based on old-fashioned handiwork, but a furniture maker in Massachusetts is using robots not to replace workers, but to help them. From member station WBUR in Boston, Asma Khalid reports.

主持人凯莉·麦克弗斯：“随着科技进步，机器人学会了叠衣服这样的新技能，人们不仅会想，我的工作能安全吗？这也是国家公共电台一档节目的名字，旨在关注科技如何改变人类工作。而今天我们要关注的行业则是家具制造业。造家具属于老式手艺活，然而马赛诸塞州的一家家具厂却在使用机器人，其目的却并非取代工人，而是帮助工人。阿斯玛·哈里德于波士顿WBUR加盟电台报道。”

ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: Josh Weissman is a furniture man. His dad started the company Moduform in 1976. It makes nightstands, beds, dressers, the whole deal for university dorms and hospitals.

阿斯玛·维斯曼：“约什·维斯曼从事家具制造业，维斯曼的父亲于1976年创立了Moduform公司，制造床头柜、床和梳妆台，为大学宿舍和医院生产成套家具。”

JOSH WEISSMAN: Back in the ’80s and ’90s there was a lot of furniture manufacturing done in north central Massachusetts. So we had craftspeople because in this neck of the woods, in north central Massachusetts, it was a haven for furniture.

约什·维斯曼：“上世纪80年代和90年代，马塞诸塞州北部是许多家具的产地，所以我们有许多工匠，因为马塞诸塞州北部是打造家具的绝佳地点。”

KHALID: But Weissman says times have changed. People don’t want to stand on a production floor for eight to 10 hours a day picking up a piece of wood and putting it through a sanding machine.

哈里德：“然而维斯曼表示，时代变了。人们再也不愿意在车间待上一天用砂轮机磨木板了。”

WEISSMAN: When we put a job ad out there, we’re lucky if we put an ad out there if we get five or six responses.

维斯曼：“每次打出招聘广告后，有五六个人打来电话就算是走运了。”

KHALID: One day in the summer of 2016, Weissman had this backlog of customer orders to fill, and he was getting really worried. He turned on his computer and noticed a news blurb about a company called Rethink Robotics. It’s the brainchild of Rodney Brooks, the man who for years had led the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT.

哈里德：“2016年夏季的某一天，维斯曼发现自己积压大了批客户订单，非常焦急。他打开电脑，发现了Rethink Robotics公司的广告。Rethink Robotics的创始人是罗德尼·布鲁克斯，布鲁克斯曾主导麻省理工学院计算机科学与人工智能实验室多年。”

RODNEY BROOKS: Our robots do simple, repetitive tasks.

罗德尼·布鲁克斯：“我们公司的机器人可以完成简单、重复性的工作。”

KHALID: I meet Brooks at his company’s swanky warehouse office in Boston, where dozens of engineers are testing out a robotic arm that you can program and wheel around.

哈里德：“我和布鲁克斯在其公司位于波士顿的时髦仓库的见面，十几位工程师正在测试一条机器臂，客户可以调试也可以推动这条机器臂。”

KHALID: That sound is the robot picking up a circuit board and putting it down again and again. That’s what it’s good at.

哈里德：“这是机器人不断举起并放下电路板的声音，是它们擅长的工作内容。”

WEISSMAN: This is the original factory, right? So...

维斯曼：“这是原始工厂，对吧？那么...”

KHALID: Back at the furniture company, Weissman takes me to see the Rethink robot he bought. It’s got four grippers on a red arm that swivels to put together a dresser drawer.

哈里德：“维斯曼在家具厂向我展示他买来的机器人，机器人的红色机器臂上装着四个钳夹，机器臂可以转动，组装梳妆台抽屉。”

WEISSMAN: It’s picking the drawer front up and it’s feeding it into the machine that’s actually cutting and routing those dovetails.

维斯曼：“机器人举起抽屉前端将抽屉放入机器设备中，实际上这些设备会完成切割工作并依次钉入鸽尾榫。”

KHALID: That noise is the wood getting cut. In the past, you would have had somebody feeding the machine by hand, someone like Brandon Correia.

哈里德：“这是切割木材的声音。过去都是工人手动为机器装填木材，布兰登·克莱利亚就做过这项工作。”

BRANDON CORREIA: I started working here over the summer - just a plain factory worker. Like, you know, sometimes I would work this. Sometimes I would be assembling.

克莱利亚：“那年夏天我开始在这上班，就是个普通工人。比如有时干这种活，有时也做做安装。”

KHALID: So you’ve done this job by hand.

哈里德：“所以你是手动装机？”

CORREIA: Yeah.

克莱利亚：“是的。”

KHALID: How was it?

哈里德：“这活干起来怎么样？”

CORREIA: It’s boring. It gets very old very quickly.

克莱利亚：“烦透了，很快就腻味了。”

KHALID: When Moduform brought this robot in, Correia was asked to set it up.

哈里德：“Moduform买来机器人，要求克莱利亚调试这些机器人。”

CORREIA: This was really the first time I’ve ever tried to program anything like this.

克莱利亚：“这是我第一次操作这种玩意。”

KHALID: He says it was hard. But now he’s figured out how to set different programs for different drawer sizes. He’s essentially become the robot’s supervisor.

哈里德：“克莱利亚说这很难，但是现在他总算明白了如何为不同的抽屉设定不同的程序。克莱利亚实际上已经变成了机器人的监工。”

CORREIA: So I’ll come back after a half hour, see if it’s working, make sure everything’s going OK. I’ll come back when it’s done and make sure there were no errors.

克莱利亚：“所以半小时后我会回来，看看它们干活，确保一切顺利。等工作都完成了我会回来检查，确保没有出错。”

KHALID: Correia says this one robot has already changed his job. It frees him up to do other work like managing customer orders. He says all this talk about robots taking jobs feels overblown.

哈里德：“克莱利亚表示这个机器人改变了自己的工作，自己可以解放出来，去做管理客户订单之类的工作。他说关于机器人抢夺人类工作的言论未免夸大其词了。”

CORREIA: There is still some sort of human that sets up the robot. You know, could we have three of these and have one person program all three and then we don’t need as many workers? I could see that. But the way they are now, they’re not foolproof.

克莱利亚：“总得有工人调试机器人。有人会说难道不可以为三个机器人配一个调试工人吗？这样不是就不需要这么多的工人了吗？我能理解这种想法，但是现在的机器人操作起来并不轻松。”

KHALID: Correia is kind of a rarity at Moduform. He’s just 24. The average worker here is over 50. And that worries the company’s owner, Josh Weissman. He’s hoping that maybe the chance to use computer skills and robots will make this old-school job more attractive to young workers. For NPR News, I’m Asma Khalid.

哈里德：“克莱利亚在Moduform称得上一个异类，他刚刚24岁，该厂工人的平均年龄却已超过50岁。维斯曼对此深感忧虑，他希望运用计算机技能和操作机器人的工作会吸引更多的年轻工人。国家公共电台，阿斯玛·哈里德。”