[ti:The Team Behind the ‘Dancing Robots’ that Went Viral] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]Boston Dynamics is an American technology company [00:05.28]that has developed a series of robots designed [00:09.92]to move in ways similar to humans and animals. [00:16.16]The company has spent years building robots [00:20.96]with useful abilities like walking, [00:24.60]moving through rough terrain [00:27.00]and picking things up with their hands. [00:31.72]The machines are designed to be used in work settings [00:36.44]to perform a number of different tasks. [00:40.48]Videos of some of the robots [00:44.32]– especially those that look like animals when they move [00:48.72]– have been popular on the internet in the past. [00:53.88]But the company's latest video to go viral [00:57.80]shows a group of robots dancing to the 1962 hit song [01:04.76]"Do You Love Me" by The Contours. [01:09.52]The video received more than 23 million views during its first week. [01:16.68]The performance shows two Boston Dynamics humanoid robots, [01:23.84]called Atlas, doing several dance moves – such as the twist, [01:30.12]the mashed potato and others. [01:33.92]The two are joined by Spot, a dog-like robot, and Handle, [01:40.84]a wheeled robot designed for lifting and moving boxes. [01:47.00]Speaking to The Associated Press, [01:49.96]Boston Dynamics founder and chairperson Marc Raibert [01:55.36]admits the video is fun to watch. [01:59.24]But he said the real success behind the experiment [02:04.00]was the valuable lessons the project taught his team. [02:09.52]"It turned out that we needed to upgrade the robot [02:14.60]in the middle of development," Raibert said. [02:18.56]He said that step was necessary in order for the robot [02:23.72]to be strong enough and have enough energy [02:27.80]to do the whole performance without stopping. [02:31.96]"So that was a real benefit to the design," he added. [02:37.84]The difficulty of teaching robots to dance [02:41.92]also pushed Boston Dynamics engineers [02:46.16]to develop better motion-programming tools. [02:51.16]These tools helped the robots do several things at once [02:55.88]- balance, bounce and perform dance moves without breaks. [03:02.20]Some social media users who watched the video [03:06.72]commented that the robots' dancing was so similar to a human [03:12.76]that they could not believe their eyes. [03:16.48]Some praised the robots' moves [03:19.68]and the technology powering them. [03:22.48]Others suggested that what they were seeing [03:26.56]was probably computer-generated imagery, or CGI. [03:32.32]But Raibert said it was all real, the result of long and hard work, [03:39.44]fueled by a strong desire to program a robot [03:43.72]that could dance to the beat. [03:45.96]"We wanted it to do human dancing and ... when a human dances, [03:52.08]the music has a beat and their whole body moves to it [03:56.20]— their hands, their body, their head." [03:59.76]Raibert added: "It looked like the robot was having fun [04:04.68]and really moved with the music. [04:07.88]And I think that had a lot to do with the result of the production." [04:13.24]The Atlas robots used a wide range of sensors [04:18.36]to perform the dance moves, including 28 actuators. [04:24.08]These are devices that serve as muscles [04:28.32]by converting electronic or physical signals into movement. [04:33.84]The robots were also equipped with three powerful computers, [04:39.28]including one that processes perception signals [04:43.84]and two that control movement. [04:47.00]Aside from the technology progress, Raibert said [04:52.16]it was also pleasing that the video became so popular [04:56.84]with people across the world. [05:00.24]"We got a call from one of the sound engineers [05:03.96]who had recorded the original Contours performance back in the '60s. [05:10.52]And he said that his whole crew of Motown friends [05:14.44]had been passing it around and had been excited by it," he added. [05:20.04]I'm Bryan Lynn. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM