2014年职称英语 阅读理解(15) Winged Robot Learns to Fly

第十五篇 Winged Robot Learns to Fly
Learning how to fly took nature millions of years of trial and error 1 —but a winged robot has cracked 2 it in only a few hours, using the same evolutionary principles. Krister Wolff and Peter Nordin of Chalmers University of Technology (CUT) in Gothenburg , Sweden, built a winged robot and set about 3 testing whether it could learn to fly by itself, without any pre-programmed data on what flapping is or how to do it.
To begin with 4, the robot just twitched and jerked erratically. But, gradually, it made movements that gained height. At first, it cheated —simply standing on its wing tips was one early short cut 5. After three hours, however, the robot abandoned such methods in favor of 6 a more effective flapping technique where it rotated its wings through 90 degrees and raised them before twisting them back to the horizontal and pushing down.
“This tells us that this kind of evolution is capable of 7 coming up 8 with flying motion,” says Peter Bentley, who works on evolutionary computing at University College London. But while 9 the robot had worked out how best to produce lift 10
, it was not about to take off. “There’s only so much that evolution can do,” Bentley says. “This thing is never going to fly because the motors will never have the strength to do it,” he says.
The robot had metre-long wings made from balsa wood and covered with a light plastic film. Small motors on the robot let it move its wings forwards or backwards. up or down or twist them in either direction.
The team attached the robot to two vertical rods, so it could slide up and down. At the start of a test, the robot was suspended by an elastic band. A movement detector measured how much lift, if any 11, the robot produced for any given movement. A computer program fed the robot random instructions 12, at the rate of 13 20 per second, to test its flapping abilities. Each instruction told the robot either to do nothing or to move the wings slightly in the various directions.
Feedback from the movement detector let the program work out which sets of instructions were best at producing lift. The most successful ones were paired up 14 and “offspring” sets of instructions 15 were generated by swapping instructions randomly between successful pairs. These next-generation instructions were then sent to the robot and evaluated before breeding a new generation, and the process was repeated.
词汇: flap /flAp/v.振翅；拍打，拍动 rotate /rEu5teit/v.旋转，转动 twitch /twitF/v.猛抽；抽动 balsa /5bRlsE/n.轻木 jerk /dVE:k/v.猛拉；急扭 offspring /5RfsprIN/n.后代；结果，产物 erratically /i5rAtik/adj.飘忽不定地；不稳定地 swop /swCp/v.交换；交流
注释：
1. Learning how to fly took nature millions of years of trial and error:自然界里的飞行学习用了几百万年的时间反复实践和磨炼。

2. crack: to break through (an obstacle) in order to win acceptance or acknowledgement: 突破（障碍）
3. set about:开始做，着手
4. To begin with: 首先
5. short cut: 捷径
6. in favor of:原意为“赞成；支持”。

这里，…… the robot abandoned such methods in favor of a more effective flapping technique 意为:……这个机器人放弃了这样的方法，而去使用一种更为有效的扇动翅膀的技术。

7. be capable of: [指物]有可能，可以……
8. come up: to manifest itself; arise 出现。

9. while:虽然，尽管
10. lift:升高
11. if any:若有的话。

确切意思是:如果它能升高的话。

12. ... fed the robot random instructions:给机器人输入随意设定的指令。

fed是feed的过去式。

13. at the rate of:以……的速度
14. pair up:把……配成一对
15.“offspring”sets of instructions:指的是将成功的指令配对后的结果。

“ offspring”本来是后代的意思，在此修饰sets of instructions，所以加了双引号。

练习:
1. Which of the following is NOT true of what is mentioned about the winged robot in the second paragraph? A The two professors of CUT built the winged robot B The two professors of CUT tested whether the winged robot could learn to fly. C The two professors of CUT programmed the data on how the robot flapped its wings. D The two professors of CUT tried to find out if the robot could fly by itself.
2. How did the robot behave at the beginning of the test?
A It rotated its wings through 90 degrees.
B It twitched but gradually gained height.
C It was twitched and broke down.
D It landed not long after the test.
3. Which of the following is nearest to Peter Bentley’s view on the win ged robot? A The winged robot could never really fly. B The winged robot did not have a motor. C The winged robot should go through further evolution before it could fly. D The robot could fly if it were lighter.
4. What measured how much lift the robot produced? A Two vertical rods. B A movement detector. C An elastic band. D Both B and C.
5. What does “the process” a ppearing in the last paragraph refer to? A Pairing up successful inst ructions. B Sending instructions to the robot. C Generating new sets of instructions for evaluation. D All the above.
答案与题解:
1. C A、B、D在第二段中都提到过。

C是错误的，因为文中说，教授们测试机器人是否会自己学会飞行，而且预先没有对翅膀扇动的方式进行数据设定。

2. B第三段描述了机器人如何学习飞行的过程。

第一句和第二句是问题的答案。

3. A第四段主要是Peter Bentley对飞行机器人的看法。

他认为前文描述的进化过程只能使机器人有一些飞行的动作，而要让其起飞则永远不可能，因为不可能有如此大功率的发动机。

所以A是正确选项
4. B答案在第六段的第三句中。

5. D文章昀后一段具体描述在机器人的进化过程中，指令的进化过程。

成功的指令配对后产生新一代的指令，将指令输入机辑人，经筛选再进行成功指令配对，再产生新一代指令，如此反复进行。

所以D是正确选项。

第十五篇肋生双翅机器人学飞行
自然界中的飞行学习经历了几百万年的反复实践和磨练，而安装机冀的机器人仅在数小时内就成功实现突破，用的是同样的进化原理。

瑞典Gothenburg Chalmers科技大学的Krister Wolff和Peter Nordin研制出带冀的机器人，并着手测试它能否在不预设振翅数据程序的条件下自行学会飞行。

首先，机器人只是飘忽不定地振动盘恒，不过它的运动逐渐获得了上升高度。

起初，它想走走捷径，试图仅用翅尖保持直立。

然而三小时后，它放弃了这种方法，转用更有效的振翅技术，90度角旋转两翼，并在
它们恢复到水平位置前将其拉起。

“事实告诉我们，飞行装置有可能实现这种进化。

”Peter Bentley说。

他现正在伦敦大学研究进化计算技术。

虽然机器人可以摸索出上升飞行的昀佳方式，却不会起飞。

“进化升级所做的只有这么多，”Bentley说。

“这东西不可能自行起飞，因为发动机不能产生足够动.”
机器人的两翼由轻木制成，长约一米，覆有轻塑胶。

它的小马达使机翼可以前后上下运动，并能在这两个方向上任意旋转。

研究小组将机器人附着在两根竖直标杆上，它便能上下滑动。

实验刚开始的时候，机器人悬挂在一根弹性带上。

一旦它升高，运动探测器就能测量它任何运动的高度。

每过20秒，计算机程序就给机器人输入任意设定的指令，以检测其振翅能力。

每个指令或是让机器人停止运动或是在各种方向上转动机翼。

通过来自运动探测器的反馈，程序测算出哪几组指令能昀有效地产生高度。

昀成功的几组进行配对，而其“后代”指令则通过在成功组合间随意交换指令产生。

在产生下一代组合之前，这些第二代指令被发往机器人并进行评估，然后这一过程反复进行。