Robots， becoming increasingly prevalent in factories and industrial plants throughout the world， are programmed and engineered to perform industrial tasks without human intervention. Many of today’s robots are employed in the automotive industry， where they are programmed to take over such jobs as welding and spray painting automobile and truck bodies.

机器人在全世界的工厂内日益普及，人们对它们进行编程和设计，使其在无人情况下执行工业任务。现今，许多机器人用于汽车工业，人们对其编程，从事如汽车和卡车车身焊接、喷漆之类的工作。

What makes a robot a robot and not just another kind of automatic machine？ Robots differ from automatic machines in that after completion of one specific task， they can be reprogrammed by a computer to do another one. As an example， a robot doing spot welding one month can be reprogrammed and switched to spray painting the next. Automatic machines， on the other hand， are not capable of many different uses; they are built to perform only one task.

是什么使機器人变成机器人而不是其他的自动化机器呢？机器人与自动化机器的区别在于：机器人完成一项特定工作后，它们可以被电脑重新编程去执行另一项任务。比如，一个机器人做了一个月的点焊，可以被重新编程，并在下个月转向喷漆。相反，自动化机器却没有许多不同的用途，它们只能执行一项任务。

The next generation of robots will make critical decisions. These future robots will have plenty of work to do. They will work as gas station attendants， firemen， housekeepers， and security personnel. Anyone wanting to understand the industry of the future will have to know about robotics.

下一代机器人将能做出关键性的决定。未来的机器人将会做大量工作。它们可以做加油站服务人员、消防人员、房屋管理员和安全人员的工作。任何想了解未来工业的人必须懂得机器人技术。

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