VOA标准英语2014--美国学生准备机器人足球赛

 

US Students Prepare for Robotic Football Championship 美国学生准备机器人足球赛

Football fever will continue in Brazil next month when robotic teams from around the world will gather there seeking to win their own championship. In preparation, U.S. technology students at the University of Pennsylvania are "coaching" a team of robots with a goal of winning a fourth consecutive¹ victory at the international event known as the RoboCup.

Watching robots play football is similar to watching small kids play the game.  The kicks are awkward², there's a lot of falling down, and grown-ups are there to coach and cheer. Jian Qiao Li, a robotics student at the University of Pennsylvania, is one of the team creators.

"Our goal is in two parts. Part one is to detect the goal and the ball and localize itself in the field.  The second part is just the locomotive³ part, like control the walking and the gait and the kick," says Jian.

And every year they get better, says another robotics student there, Qin He.

"We'll teach it what's the green color, what's the red color and it will learn by itself and during a game it will detect by itself, no one will give any command, it will decide where to go and where the ball is. If there are three players on the field at the same time, they will communicate to each other and they will decide who is the attacker, who is the supporter -- they will have different roles to coordinate⁴ with each other," says Qin.

The U.S. team has won the past three championships, held in the Netherlands, Mexico and Turkey. Fellow robotics student Christopher Akatsuka hopes for another victory next month.

"They have very good team play right now. As long as their detection is good, I think they'll be very competitive⁵; we just hope to compete against real good German teams, because the Germans always do very well," says Akatsuka.

Akatsuka says Robocup really is a competition in technology.

"Each team develops their own software; basically it's a competition of who has the best software, who has the best decision-making at a given point... it's really exciting," says Akatsuka.

The goal is to develop a team of robots that can play against humans by the year 2050.

1 consecutive   

adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的

参考例句：

• It has rained for four consecutive days.已连续下了四天雨。
• The policy of our Party is consecutive.我党的政策始终如一。

2 awkward   

adj.笨拙的，尴尬的，使用不便的，难处理的

参考例句：

• John is so shy and awkward that everyone notices him.约翰如此害羞狼狈，以至于大家都注意到了他。
• I was the only man among the guests and felt rather awkward.作为客人中的唯一男性，我有些窘迫。

3 locomotive   

adj.运动的，机动

参考例句：

• The wheels were set further back on the original locomotive.车轮安装得比原来机车的更靠后些。
• A group of enthusiasts have undertaken the reconstruction of a steam locomotive.一群火车迷已担负起重造蒸汽机车的任务。

4 coordinate   

adj.同等的，协调的；n.同等者；vt.协作，协调

参考例句：

• You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
• Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。

5 competitive   

adj.竞争的，比赛的，好竞争的，有竞争力的

参考例句：

• Some kinds of business are competitive.有些商业是要竞争的。
• These businessmen are both competitive and honourable.这些商人既有竞争性又很诚实。