VOA慢速英语：丰田推出行走辅助机器人 帮助残疾人行走

Toyota Plans to Offer a Robotic Leg to Help the Disabled

丰田推出行走辅助机器人 帮助残疾人行走

Japanese carmaker Toyota has designed a robotic leg to help disabled people walk.

日本丰田汽车制造商设计了一款机器腿来帮助残疾人行走。

The company demonstrated the new device to reporters at its headquarters in Tokyo this week.

本周，丰田公司会在东京总部为记者演示它的最新装置。

The robotic leg is called the Welwalk WW-1000 system. It has a mechanical frame that fits onto a person’s leg below the knee. Patients can practice walking on a special treadmill.

这款机器腿配备Welwalk WW-1000系统，他具有一副机械框架可以安装在人体膝盖以下部分，患者可以通过在一种特殊的跑步机上来训练走路。

Eiichi Saito is a doctor and an executive vice president at Fujita Health University. His university helped Toyota develop the robotic leg.

Eiichi Saito是一名医生同时是 Fujita 健康大学的副校长，他的大学助力丰田公司研发制造出这种机器腿。

Saito said it is designed to be worn on one leg for patients who are paralyzed on one side of their body because of a stroke or other disease.

Saito称，对于由于中风或者其他疾病导致半身瘫痪的人来说，机器腿会被设计为只磨损病患一只腿的形式。

The device is attached with a strap to the thigh, knee, ankle and foot of the person using it. A motor helps to bend and straighten the knee. Sensors provide information about what is happening and medical staff can control the system through a touch panel screen.

这种装置通过一根带子与使用者的大腿，膝盖，脚踝，脚部紧紧的系在一起。一个发动机会帮助进行膝盖的伸直和弯曲，而传感器将正在发生的情况提供给医疗人员从而通过触摸屏来控制整个系统。

“This helps just barely enough,” said the researcher, who said helping a patient too much can slow recovery.

研究人员称：这种情况是刚刚好的，帮助患者太多则会导致康复速度的减慢。

Japanese carmakers are also making robots

日本汽车制造商也在制作机器人

Japanese carmakers have been developing robotics for manufacturing and other uses for many years.

日本汽车制造商多年以来都在致力于研究用于制造业和其他用途的机器人。

Honda MotorCo., for example, has developed the Asimo humanoid robot that can run, dance and speak.

例如，日本本田汽车公司已经发明出能跑，能跳舞，还能说话的仿人机器人“阿西莫”。

Toyota’s WelWalk system uses robotic technology to assist people in moving and walking. Toyota took about 10 years to develop the robot walker.

丰田汽车的Welwalk 系统使用机器技术来协助人们移动和走路，大概花费了10年的时间来发明行走机器人。

Toshiyuki Isobe is with Toyota’s Frontier Research Center. He told Reuters news service that it has taken the company time to develop robotics products.

Toshiyuki Isobe在丰田公司前沿研究中心工作，他告诉路透社记者并称发明机器产品消耗的是公司的时间。

“The biggest challenges have been in determining the needs of the robot market, which is relatively new, and to ensure that our products are safe,” he said.

他还说：对于机器人市场需求的判定上最大的挑战是需求相对更新快，还要保证我们的产品是安全的。

Robots that assist in health care are seen as an important and growing market.

协助医疗保健的机器人被看做是一个很重要并且不断扩大的市场，

Growing market for robots in healthcare

医疗保健的机器人市场不断扩大

Eiichi Saito says Toyota’s device is aimed at helping common paralysis caused by health problems like strokes that can happen to aging people. Japan’s population is aging faster than other countries. In 2015, more than 26 percent of Japanese were aged 65 or older.

Eiichi Saito称丰田公司的装置目的是帮助由于健康问题导致的普通瘫痪患者，例如发生在老年人身上的中风。日本的人口比其他国家的老龄化速度快，在2015年，超过26%的日本人达到了65岁甚至更老。

Robotic devices may also be better for patients in some cases. Saito said patients using the device can recover more quickly because the robotic sensors in the WelWalk are more sensitive to movement than a human health worker.

机器人装置也可能在其他案例中对于患者的效果更好，Saito 称：病患通过使用这种装置能恢复的更快，因为在移动上，WelWalk中的机器传感器比人类健康工作者更敏感。

Some experts expect demand for robots used to assist in care of the old and disabled will increase sharply. That is because there will be fewer people in the work force to care for the growing number of older patients.

一些专家预期用于协助老年人和残疾人医疗的机器人需求会有急剧增加，是因为在劳动力大军中，越来越少的人会照顾不断增加的老年患者。

The International Robotic Federation says more than 37,000 robots used in healthcare for the aged and disabled will be sold between 2016 and 2019. It says the field is expected to increase a lot in the next 20 years.

国际机器人联盟称在2016年至2019年，超过37000个被用于老年人和残疾人医疗保健的机器人将会发售。还指出在接下来的20年里这个领域将会有很大的拓展。

Toyota plans to rent 100 of the robotic systems to medical centers in Japan later this year. Costs include a $9000 one-time charge and a monthly rental cost of $3,200.

丰田公司计划在今年晚些时候会出租给日本的医疗中心1000套机器系统。花费包含9000美元的一次性缴费和每月3200美元的租金。

However, competition in walking assistance devices is growing. The medical technology company Hocoma of Switzerland and ReWalk Robotics of the United States also have developed robotic walkers.

然而，在协助行走装置上的竞争越来越激烈，瑞士医疗技术公司Hocoma和美国的“重新行走”机器人公司也都发明出了机械行走器。

I’m Mario Ritter.

马里奥·里特尔报道。