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Long, lanky humanoid robots get to work at Amazon facility
Tall, capable, and vaguely insectoid looking, a series of Digit robots are now moving around empty bins at an Amazon research and development facility. The trial run is the first step towards using the bots to automate repetitive warehouse processes.
The robots were provided for the test program by Agility Robotics, an Amazon-backed tech company whose flagship product is the humanoid Digit robot. Measuring 5.7 ft (175 cm) tall, the robot has grasshopper-like legs that the company refers to as "backwards legs," which allow it to crouch to pick up items off the floor and lift them to nearly six feet high. Digit can lift packages weighing up to 35 lb (16 kg) and it can walk in nearly all directions, handle stairs and uneven terrain, and even walk while in a crouched position.
Amazon, which says it now has over 750,000 robots working for it, indicates that Digit isn't meant to take jobs away but rather, to "work collaboratively with employees." The company says the bots will be tasked with the repetitive process of recycling empty totes that no longer have inventory in them.
This isn't Digit's first foray into the working world where it is certainly never going to replace human workers (yes, that is meant to be read dripping in sarcasm). In 2019 a creepier, headless version of the bot was trialed in a partnership with Ford for the autonomous delivery of packages to homes. And just last year, Digit began doing its thing at the warehouse that handles fulfillment for the women's wear brand, Spanx, as you can see in the following video.
Nor is Digit the first humanoid robot to get to work in the real world. At the start of this year, it was announced that robotics company Figure would be supplying its slick metallic humanoid bots to BMW's plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where they'll be trained for staged deployment.
While Digit is certainly impressive in all of its crouching, backwards walking and lifting abilities, it is still a somewhat rudimentary robot in terms of fine motor skills. That could change sooner than many might think based on another bot we reported on last month, from a company called Sanctuary AI. While that bot can't walk, it has some amazingly fast and skillful hydraulically activated hands, so you can imagine that morphing that tech with the motor skills of Digit or other bots from companies like Boston Dynamics can't be too far off on the horizon.
For now though, Agility Robotics feels pretty confident that Digit can bring value to the workforce as is, as evidenced by the construction of a 70,000-sq-ft (6,503-sq-m) facility in Salem, Oregon. Known as the "RoboFab" manufacturing plant, the facility will reportedly have the capacity to produce more than 10,000 Digit robots per year.
注释：
lanky: adj
表示" 瘦长的"，means "tall and thin and having long slender limbs"，如：Tom was a lanky boy with long skinny legs. 汤姆是一个腿很细的瘦高个儿。
Humanoid: n
表示"人形机；(科幻小说中的)星球人"，means "an automaton that resembles a human being"，如：The merit of a humanoid is that it can go every place a human can go. 人形机械人的优点是，人类能去的任何地方它都能去。
insectoid: n
表示" 多脚昆虫机器人"，如：There must be more to the insectoid than met the eye, he realized. 他意识到，这个昆虫形生物一定还有什么瞒着他。
crouch: v; n
表示" 蹲下；屈膝"，means " stand with the knees well bent;squat"，如：He crouched down among the tangled foliage. 他蹲下把身子藏在紊乱的叶丛中。
foray: v; n
表示" 突袭；尝试"，means "steal goods; take as spoils"，如：They forayed into enemy territory. 他们对敌军领土进行了突袭。
slick: adj; adv
表示"光滑的；顺利地；（指人）圆滑的"，means " smooth and slippery"，如：I advised them to watch out for slick spots on the sidewalk. 我叫他们当心人行道上路滑的地方。
metallic: adj
表示" 金属的；金属般的"，means "of metal"，如：This is a kind of metallic paint. 这是一种有金属光泽的涂料。
rudimentary: adj
表示"基本的；初步的"，means "being or involving basic facts or principles"，如：They were given only rudimentary training in the job. 他们仅仅受到过基本的职业训练。
morphing: n
表示" [计]变形"，means "cause to change shape in a computer animation"，如：In the Timeline view, double-click on a cell in the morphing sequence. 在时间轴视图中，双击一个细胞中的变形序列。
中文简要说明：
亚马逊集团是世界最大的物流公司，他们最近来了一些机器人员工，双手可搬箱，双脚可行走，与科幻电影的场景很类似，这是亚马逊自动化仓储计划的一部分，但该公司表示，机器人是辅助，不会抢了人类员工的饭碗。
新阿特拉斯(New Altas)报导，这些机器人是由亚马逊支持的科技公司 阿捷特利机器人(Agility Robotics)所提供的，其旗舰产品是「迪杰特」(Digit, 意为数字化)机器人，它的普通身高为175公分，但有着一对像动物的后腿，该公司就称为「向后腿」，这使得它能够蹲下，捡起地板上的物品，并将它们举到近180公分高。迪捷特可以举起16公斤的包裹，可以在几乎所有方向上行走、包括上下楼梯和不平坦的地形。
亚马逊表示，目前集团内有超过 75 万台机器人为其工作(大多数不是人型)，这表明「迪捷特」并不是抢走人类的工作机会，而是要「协助人类工作」。该公司表示，这些机器人的任务，是重复回收空的箱子。
这并不是「迪捷特」第一次被聘用，早在2019 年，与福特集团就合作试用过了，负责将包裹递送到家户，只是当时的「迪捷特」没有明显的头部，看起来有些毛骨悚然。
去年，「迪捷特」在女装品牌 Spanx 处理订单的仓库，开展实验性业务，机器人辨识二维码，以确定在哪里搬运箱子，又在哪里放下箱子。
「迪捷特」也不是唯一投入工作的人形机器人。今年年初，机器人公司Figure宣布将向BMW位于南卡罗来纳州斯帕坦堡(Spartanburg)的工厂，供应他们的金属人形机器人，它们的外观更像人类，双手有手掌与5只手指，脚部也更像人类，不过行走的速度较缓慢。
上个月，有一家名为 Sanctuary AI 的公司，研发一种家事机器人，它虽然不能行走，但有一对仿人类的双手，还有AI判读文字的能力，可以把写有点心名字的标牌，正确的放在点心的前面，虽然整个工作过程还相当缓慢，但假以时日会快速进步。
言归正传，阿捷特利机器人公司对「迪捷特」非常有信心，他们还在扩大机器人生产厂，具备每年生产超过 1万台机器人的能力。
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