美国公司研发农作物无人驾驶飞机
📖 逐句对照翻译
American companies are developing unmanned aircraft systems that are larger than drones.
美国公司正在开发比无人机更大的无人驾驶航空器系统。
The goal is for the aircraft to help agricultural producers and reduce risks to human safety.
目标是让飞机帮助农业生产者并降低对人身安全的风险。
Rotor technologies
旋翼技术
When Hector Xu was learning to pilot a helicopter in college, he remembered having a few bad experiences while flying at night.
当赫克托·徐在大学学习驾驶直升机时，他记得在夜间飞行时有过几次糟糕的经历。
The experiences led him to research unmanned aircraft systems while getting his doctorate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
这些经历促使他在麻省理工学院攻读博士学位期间研究无人驾驶航空器系统。
Then, Xu formed Rotor Technologies in 2021 to develop unmanned helicopters.
随后，徐在2021年创立了Rotor Technologies公司，致力于研发无人直升机。
Rotor has built two autonomous helicopters that the company calls Sprayhawks.
Rotor公司已经制造了两架自主直升机，该公司称之为Sprayhawks。
Rotor aims to have as many as 20 Sprayhawks ready for market next year.
Rotor公司计划明年让多达20架Sprayhawk准备上市。
The company also is developing helicopters that would fly shipments into disaster areas and to oil rigs in oceans.
该公司还在研发直升机，以便将货物运送到灾区以及海洋中的石油钻井平台。
The helicopters could also be used to fight wildfires.
这些直升机也可用于扑灭野火。
For now, Rotor is paying attention to agriculture.
目前，罗托正关注农业领域。
The industry has accepted automation with drones but sees unmanned helicopters as a better way to spray larger areas with pesticides and fertilizers.
业界已接受无人机自动化，但认为无人直升机是喷洒农药和化肥、覆盖更大面积的更好方式。
Safety
安全
A major appeal of automation in agriculture flights is safety.
农业飞行自动化的一个主要吸引力在于安全性。
Because special airplanes called crop dusters fly at around 240 kph and only about 3 meters off the ground, there are tens of accidents each year.
由于被称为农用喷药机的特殊飞机飞行速度约为每小时240公里，且离地面仅约3米，每年都会发生数十起事故。
The small planes hit power lines, cell towers and other planes.
小型飞机撞上了电线、手机信号塔和其他飞机。
Older planes in disrepair and pilot tiredness play a part in accidents.
老旧飞机失修和飞行员疲劳是事故的部分原因。
A 2014 report from the National Transportation Safety Board found there were more than 800 agriculture flight accidents between 2001 and 2010, including 81 that were deadly.
美国国家运输安全委员会2014年的一份报告发现，2001年至2010年间发生了800多起农业飞行事故，其中81起为致命事故。
A separate report from the National Agriculture Aviation Association found nearly 640 accidents from 2014 until this month with 109 deaths.
美国国家农业航空协会的另一份报告发现，从2014年到本月，共发生了近640起事故，造成109人死亡。
“It is a very, very dangerous, profession,” said Dan Martin, a research engineer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service.
美国农业部农业研究局的研究工程师丹·马丁说：“这是一个非常、非常危险的职业。”
Martin said about the pilots, “They make all their money in those short few months so sometimes it may mean that they fly 10 to 12 hours a day or more.”
马丁谈到这些飞行员时说：“他们在那短短几个月里赚足了钱，所以有时这意味着他们一天要飞10到12个小时甚至更多。”
Job risks also include possible contact with farming chemicals.
工作风险还包括可能接触农用化学品。
In recent years, safety and cost concerns have led to a number of drones flying above farmers’ fields, Martin said.
马丁说，近年来，出于安全和成本方面的考虑，许多无人机在农田上方飞行。
He added that some 10,000 drones will likely be sold this year alone.
他补充说，仅今年一年就可能售出约1万架无人机。
“It’s growing exponentially as a market, super fast,” Martin said.
马丁说：“作为一个市场，它正在以指数级速度增长，非常快。”
But the size of the drones means they only can cover a small amount of the area that a plane or helicopter can.
但无人机的尺寸意味着它们只能覆盖飞机或直升机所能覆盖的一小部分区域。
The limitation is providing an opening for companies building bigger unmanned aircraft like Rotor and another company, Pyka.
这一限制为Rotor和另一家公司Pyka等制造更大无人机的企业提供了机会。
California-based Pyka announced in August that it had sold its first autonomous electric aircraft for crop protection to a buyer in the United States.
总部位于加利福尼亚州的Pyka公司于8月宣布，已将其首架用于作物保护的自主电动飞机出售给美国的一位买家。
Pyka’s Pelican Spray, a fixed-wing aircraft, received official approval last year to fly for crop protection.
Pyka公司的Pelican Spray是一款固定翼飞机，去年获得了官方批准，可用于作物保护飞行。
The company also sold its Pelican Spray to Dole for use in Honduras and to the Brazilian company, SLC Agrícola.
该公司还将其Pelican Spray出售给了都乐公司，用于洪都拉斯，并卖给了巴西公司SLC Agrícola。
Lukas Koch is chief technology officer at Heinen Brothers Agra Services, the company which bought the Pelican Spray in August.
卢卡斯·科赫是海宁兄弟农业服务公司的首席技术官，该公司于8月收购了鹈鹕喷雾机。
Koch has called unmanned aircraft part of a coming “revolution,” that will save farmers money and increase safety.
科赫称无人驾驶飞机是即将到来的“革命”的一部分，它将为农民节省开支并提高安全性。
The Kansas-based company operates out of airports from Texas to Illinois.
这家总部位于堪萨斯州的公司业务覆盖从得克萨斯州到伊利诺伊州的多个机场。
Koch does not see the unmanned aircraft replacing all the company’s pilots but rather taking over the riskiest jobs.
科赫并不认为无人飞机会取代公司的所有飞行员，而是认为它们将接管风险最高的工作。
“The biggest draw is taking the pilot out of the aircraft inside of those most dangerous situations,” Koch said.
科赫说：“最大的吸引力在于，能在最危险的境况下将飞行员从飞机中撤离出来。”
But Koch also says that autonomous aviation systems could bring new dangers to an already busy airspace.
但科赫也表示，自主航空系统可能会给本已繁忙的空域带来新的危险。
Still, the risk is less of a concern in rural areas with plenty of open space and fewer people.
尽管如此，在开阔空间充足、人口较少的农村地区，这一风险就不那么令人担忧了。
The future
未来
Companies like Rotor have developed their systems to work if bad events come up.
像Rotor这样的公司已经开发出他们的系统，以便在出现不良事件时仍能正常工作。
Rotor’s helicopter, for example, has a half-dozen communications systems and, for now, a remote pilot in control.
例如，Rotor公司的直升机配备了六个通信系统，并且目前由一名远程飞行员进行控制。
If the ground team loses contact with the helicopter, Rotor has a system to deal with the problem.
如果地面团队与直升机失去联系，罗托公司有一套应对该问题的系统。
The system makes sure the engine can be turned off and the helicopter can perform a controlled landing.
该系统确保发动机能够关闭，直升机能够执行受控着陆。
The safety measures will go a long way to helping the company receive what it expects will be official government approval to fly its helicopters for business purposes.
这些安全措施将大大有助于该公司获得其预期的政府正式批准，使其直升机能够用于商业目的飞行。
Once the company has approval, the difficulty, as Xu sees it, will be building more devices to meet the demand in the United States and Brazil.
在徐看来，一旦公司获得批准，难点将在于制造更多设备以满足美国和巴西的需求。
I’m John Russell.
我是约翰·拉塞尔。
Michael Casey reported on this story for the Associated Press.
迈克尔·凯西为美联社报道了此事。
John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English.
约翰·拉塞尔为VOA英语学习频道改编了它。
