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Large clothing and technology companies, including Siemens AG and Levi Strauss & Co., are developing robots to make clothes.
包括西门子公司和李维斯特劳斯公司在内的大型服装和科技公司正在开发制作服装的机器人。
The process of using robots or computers for human work, known as automation, has raised concerns about jobs for many people around the world.
使用机器人或计算机来代替人类工作的过程，即自动化，已经引发了世界各地许多人对工作的担忧。
Eugen Solowjow heads an automated clothes manufacturing project at a Siemens lab in San Francisco.
尤金·索洛乔是旧金山西门子实验室自动化服装制造项目的负责人。
"Clothing is the last trillion-dollar industry that hasn't been automated," he said.
他说：“服装业是最后一个尚未实现自动化的万亿美元产业”。
The worldwide clothing market is estimated to be worth $1.52 trillion, the independent research group Statista says.
据独立研究机构Statista估计，全球服装市场价值1.52万亿美元。
The idea of using robots to increase manufacturing in the United States grew more popular during the pandemic.
在新冠疫情期间，使用机器人来增加美国制造业的想法越来越流行。
COVID-19 interfered with supply chains around the world, highlighting the risk of using distant factories.
新冠疫情阻断了世界各地的供应链，突出了使用远程工厂的风险。
But moving clothing manufacturing back to Western markets, including the United States, is a sensitive issue.
但是，将服装制造业转移回包括美国在内的西方市场是一个敏感问题。
Many clothing companies are unsure about publicly discussing automation.
许多服装公司不确定是否要公开讨论自动化。
Such reports would cause public concern that automation will take jobs from workers in poor countries.
这样的报道将会引起公众的担忧，即自动化将会夺走贫穷国家工人的工作。
One industry inventor, Jonathan Zornow, said he has received online criticism, and a death threat, in connection with his work.
行业发明家乔纳森·佐尔诺说，他在网上收到了与他的工作有关的批评和死亡威胁。
Sewing - the act of using a needle and thread to make clothes - is especially difficult to automate.
缝纫——用针和线缝制衣服的行为——尤其难以实现自动化。
Robots do not have the fine touch skill that human hands do.
机器人没有人手所具备的精细触摸技能。
Robots are getting better, but it will take years to fully develop their ability to handle fabric, said five researchers questioned by Reuters.
路透社采访的五名研究人员表示，机器人正在变得越来越好，但要完全开发出它们处理布料的能力还需要数年时间。
But current research efforts are also looking at doing just enough work by machine to close the cost difference between U.S. and foreign factories.
但目前的研究也着眼于用机器完成足够多的工作，以缩小美国工厂和外国工厂之间的成本差距。
Work at Siemens grew out of efforts to create software to guide robots that could handle all types of materials, such as thin wire cables, said Solowjow.
索洛乔说，西门子公司的工作是软件开发，以引导机器人处理各种类型的材料，如细电线电缆。
He added that researchers soon realized one of the best targets for automation was clothing.
他还说，研究人员很快意识到，自动化的最佳目标之一是服装。
Siemens worked with the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute in Pittsburgh.
西门子公司与匹兹堡的先进机器人制造研究所合作。
They identified a San Francisco company with a promising way to deal with the fabric problem.
他们找到了一家旧金山的公司，该公司有一种很有前途的方法来解决面料问题。
The startup, Sewbo Inc., hardens, or stiffens, fabric with chemicals.
这家名为Sewbo Inc.的初创公司用化学物质使布料变硬。
The hardened fabric is then similar to other material robots can handle, like metal for example.
硬化后的布料类似于机器人可以处理的其他材料，如金属。
Once the robots finish sewing the piece, the clothing is washed to remove the chemical.
一旦机器人完成缝制，衣服就会被清洗，以去除化学物质。
"Pretty much every piece of denim is washed after it's made anyway, so this fits into the existing production system," said Zornow, Sewbo's inventor.
Sewbo公司的创始人佐尔诺说：“几乎每一件牛仔布在制作完成后都要清洗，所以这符合现有的生产体系。”
This research effort widened to include several clothing companies, including Levi's and Bluewater Defense LLC, a small U.S.-based maker of military clothes.
这项研究工作扩大到几家服装公司，其中包括李维斯公司和Bluewater Defense LLC，一家总部位于美国的小型军用服装制造商。
They received $1.5 million in financing from the ARM Institute to experiment with the technique.
他们从先进机器人制造研究所获得了150万美元的资金，用于试验这项技术。
There are other efforts to automate sewing factories.
在实现缝纫厂自动化方面，美国还付出了其他努力。
Software Automation Inc, a startup in Georgia, has developed a machine that can sew clothing by pulling the cloth over a special table, for example.
例如，佐治亚州的初创公司软件自动化公司开发了一种机器，其可以通过将布料拉到特制的桌子上来缝制衣服。
Sanjeev Bahl, who opened a small jeans factory called Saitex in downtown Los Angeles two years ago, has studied the Sewbo machines.
两年前，桑吉夫·巴尔在洛杉矶市中心开了一家名为Saitex的小型牛仔裤工厂，他对Sewbo公司的机器进行了研究。
He is preparing to set up his first experimental machine.
他正准备安装他的第一台实验机器。
At his factory in September, he said that many sewing jobs are ready for a new process.
9月，在他的工厂里，他说许多缝纫工作已经准备好采用新工艺。
"If it works," he said, "I think there's no reason not to have large-scale jeans manufacturing here in the U.S. again."
“如果成功了，”他说，“我认为没有理由不在美国重新大规模生产牛仔裤。”
I'm John Russell.
约翰·拉塞尔为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
