VOA慢速英语:US Students Built Robot to Uncover Submerged Unexploded Mines

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.
许多教师认为，实际操作是最好的学习方式。美国的一群大学生就对该理念进行了检验。

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.
学生们来自于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一个机器人用于引爆海底未爆炸的水雷。这些科技学生们制造这台机器人来响应美国国防部的一项挑战。

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.
这台水下机器人被称之为英仙座2号。学生们最近在史蒂文斯理工学院的一个95米长的水箱中对英仙座2号进行了测试。

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.
该机器人的成本约为1.5万美元。学生们使用视频游戏控制器引导其在水箱底部移动。推进型使得这台机器人可以上、下以及朝着水中目标移动。

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.
机器人身上的摄像头将图像通过一根13米长的电缆发回到电脑。英仙座2号还具备一组激光器，它们被用于测量物体的尺寸。

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.
该机器人是五名本科生的作品。在过去六个月里，他们每周工作15到20小时来设计和制造英仙座2号。

Michael DeLorne supervised the project. He says the specialized requirements of robot were demanding.
Michael DeLorne负责监管该项目。他说机器人的专业要求是苛刻的。

"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.
DeLorne说，“它们的目标是下潜然后找到未爆炸的武器。而且不仅是找到他们，还要为地面上的专家提供信息。这样专家就能评估该武器是否危险。”

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.
Michael DeLorne说，学生们想出了一些充满智慧的方案来解决这些复杂问题。问题之一包括当机器人下水后如何控制其位置。
"One unique thing they did, they developed an algorithm that allowed them to autonomously control the vehicle's depth," DeLorne said.
underwater.
DeLorne说，“他们的独门绝招包括开发出一种算法，使得他们能够自主控制该设备的深度。”

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.
Mark Siembab是该学生团队的成员之一。他说，该团队开发出了一种低成本的方案来标记他们所发现的物体的位置。

"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.
Siembab说，“机器人的一个部件会沉到底部然后固定住，而安装了亮橙色球的另一个部件会浮上水面，让有关人员能够正确辨认，并让有关人员知道，水下有东西而且机器人已经对其进行了标记。”

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.
在佛罗里达州，英仙座2号同其它工程学校制造的类似机器人一起成功进行了测试。另一方面，史蒂文斯理工学院新的学生们已经开始进行下一个项目。这是名为英仙座3号的一种无人飞行器。