托福阅读素材：水下机器人(社会科学篇)

　　托福阅读素材社会科学篇：美国几位本科生成功设计并制造了水下机器人.新东方在线托福网为大家带来托福阅读素材：水下机器人(社会科学篇)，希望对大家托福备考有所帮助，更多精彩尽请关注新东方在线托福网!

　　来自美国新泽西州的几位本科生了响应美国国防部的一项挑战，成功设计并制造了一台用于引爆海底未爆炸的水雷的机器人。在设计过程中不断克服了一些技术问题。快来一起来看看托福阅读材料的详细介绍，看看他们在过程中遇到了哪些问题?又是怎样设计成功的?

　　autonomously adv. 自治地;独立自主地

　　challenge n. 挑战;怀疑

　　hands-on adj. 亲身实践的，亲自动手的

　　mine n. 矿vt. 开采，采掘vi. 开矿pron. 我的

　　thrusters n. [航] 推进器

　　lasern. 激光

　　resourceful adj. 资源丰富的;足智多谋的

　　一起阅读吧!

　　Many teachers believe that "hands-on" experience is the best way to learn. A group of students in the United States is putting that belief to the test.

　　The students are with the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. They successfully designed and built a robot for uncovering unexploded mines at the bottom of the sea. The technology students made the robot to answer a challenge from the U.S. Department of Defense.

　　The underwater vehicle is called Perseus II. The students recently tested Perseus II in a 95-meter-long tank of water at the Stevens Institute of Technology.

　　The robot costs about $15,000 to build. The students use a video game controller to direct its movements at the bottom of the tank. Devices known as thrusters enable the robot to go up, down, and toward its target in the water.

　　Video cameras on the robot send images back to a computer through a 13-meter long cable. Perseus II also has a set of lasers. They are used to measure the size of an object.

　　The robot is the creation of five undergraduate students. For over six months, they worked between 15 and 20 hours a week to design and build Perseus II.

　　Michael DeLorne supervised the project. He says the specialized requirements of the robot were demanding.

　　"Their goal was to go down and find this unexploded ordnance and not only just find them but provide information to an expert on the surface so he or she could make a decision whether it was something dangerous or not.".

　　Michael DeLorne says the students came up with some resourceful solutions for difficult problems. One such problem was how to control the position of the robot while underwater.

　　"One unique thing they did, they developed an algorithm that allowed them to autonomously control the vehicle's depth."

　　Mark Siembab is a member of the Perseus II team. He says the team developed a low-cost method to mark the location of whatever object they found.

　　"One component sank to the bottom and anchored itself while the other component had a brightly colored orange ball, which would float to the surface and provide a positive identification to the passer-by or the authorities to let them know there's an object down there and we'd marked it."

　　Perseus II was successfully tested in Florida with similar robots built at other engineering schools. In a separate development, new students at the Stevens Institute of Technology have already started on the next project. It is an unmanned flying vehicle they are calling Perseus III.

　　长难句：

　　1.Their goal was to go down and find this unexploded ordnance and not only just find them but provide information to an expert on the surface( so he or she could make a decision whether it was something dangerous or not)句子类型：状语从句

　　句子拆分：

　　主干：Their goal was to go down and find this unexploded ordnance and not only just find them but provide information to an expert on the surface

　　结果状语从句：so he or she could make a decision whether it was something dangerous or not

　　whether or not引导的状语从句：whether it was something dangerous or not

　　翻译：它们的目标是下潜然后找到未爆炸的武器。而且不仅是找到他们，还要为地面上的专家提供信息。这样专家就能评估该武器是否危险

　　2.One component sank to the bottom and anchored itself (while the other component had a brightly colored orange ball), which would float to the surface and provide a positive identification to the passer-by or the authorities (to let them know there's an object down there and we'd marked it).

　　句子类型：状语从句+定语从句

　　句子拆分：

　　主干：ne component sank to the bottom and anchored itself.

　　状语从句：while the other component had a brightly colored orange ball

　　定语从句：which would float...and provide...(to let them know做目的状语)

　　翻译：机器人的一个部件会沉到底部然后固定住，而安装了亮橙色球的另一个部件会浮上水面，让有关人员能够正确辨认，并让有关人员知道，水下有东西而且机器人已经对其进行了标记。