1. Laboratory compartment — лабораторный отсек

2. Celestial body — небесное тело

The robots of our time resemble humans very little. According to specialists, the main thing for them is not to look like people, but to do their work for them. Factories which are equipped with automatic machine-tools, transfer lines and management information systems ¹ place a lot of hope in them

Automation sought out areas where a robot can operate as well as a person but where people don't like to work. In other words man has created the robot so as not to become a robot himself.

The first generation of robots appeared in the 60s and they were complex and capricious in maintenance. They could perform operations of the type "take off—put on" or "pick up—bring". They could pick up items only from def­inite positions determined by a rigid programme.

Today, to avoid errors,² robots are supplied with vision (TV camera) and hearing (microphone). They can perform more complex production operations—painting, soldering, welding and assembly work. A more complex task lies ahead—to remove people completely from production areas where there are harmful fumes, excessively high or low temperatures and pressure. People should not work in conditions that are dangerous. Let the robots replace them there—and the sooner, the better. That is how * Soviet scientists understand one of the main humanistic tasks of robotics of our time.

Generally speaking * a single robot by itself is hardly of any use in production. It must be coupled in design s with other equipment, with a system of machines, machine-tools and other devices. We must set up robotized complexes and flexible productions capable of transferring easily and quickly to an output of new goods.

Flexible production systems consist, as a rule, of several machine-tools with numerical programmed control or of processing centres—machine-tools equipped with micro­processors. An all-purpose computer controls the entire cycle, including the storage facilities. One hundred per cent automated production is no longer ^e a dream. Today Soviet enterprises produce over 1,000 robots every month.

There is already talk of making thinking robots. Ap­parently, robots will appear which will be able to discourse, understand and acquire the ability to study. Maybe they will be able to enrich our concepts about the world around us. But one thing is certain—a robot will never be able to grasp even the semblance of such emotions as love, honour, pride, pity, courage and selflessness.

Notes

1. management Information systems — системы информацион­ного управления

2. to avoid errors — чтобы избежать погрешностей (ошибок)

3. that is how — вот как

4. generally speaking — вообще говоря

5. it must be coupled in design — его необходимо соединить вместе

6. no longer — больше не

MACHINES OF TOMORROW COME TODAY

One of the keys of speeding up scientific and technical progress is new generations of machines and advanced re­sources-saving technologies.¹ Radial swaging machines (RSM)² with programmed control make it possible to manufacture with a high degree of precision smooth or graduated articles of cylindrical and, whenever necessary, conical shape.

By the traditional way these parts are made by cutting and a half or even more of the material is reduced to chips,⁸ the operations themselves require a large number of ma­chine-tools and personnel. But the method of radial swaging increases productivity several times and provides practi­cally no loss of metal.

The RSMs work in accordance with * a pre-set prog­ramme. The transition from the manufacture of One profile to another or change of the standard size are practically re­duced merely to putting in a new programme by pressing a button on the operator's desk.

Every RSM releases at least 10 metal-cutting machine-tools. Highly productive automated "flexible" sections will now be set up 6 on the basis of this equipment at many enterprises.

Notes

1. advanced resources-saving technologies — передовые техно­логии экономии ресурсов

2. radial swaging machines (RSM) — радиально-ковочные ма­шины

3. is reduced to chips — превращается в стружку

4. in accordance with — в соответствии с

5. will now be set up — sd. будут создаваться теперь

THE PARADOXES OF VIBRATION

The term "vibration" is of Latin origin and means me­chanical movement. Man came to know ¹ vibration long ago and realized just as long ago that it could be both useful and harmful; he used and fought it.

Modern production is unthinkable without vibration-based machines: the vibratory hammer, vibratory screens, vibratory conveyors, vibratory compacting machines, etc. Hazardous vibration can damage and even destroy a ma­chine.

Some of the Soviet scientists took interest in vibrations, but of a different kind, vibrations whose amplitude is less than a thousandth of a millimetre, and whose frequency is tens of thousands and even millions of vibrations a sec­ond. Such vibrations are imperceptible either by eye or ear, and they cannot be felt. Scientists and engineers have nevertheless learnt to generate these microwaves, to "see" and count them, and to apply them in instruments and mechanisms. The field of engineering utilizing such vibrations is called precision vibromechanics. Here are a few of its achievements.

Vibration motors are light, compact and simple in de­sign; their size can be very small (over 1,000 pieces can be fitted into a single cubic centimetre). They rotate at very stable rates, which can be as high as required (provided the structure endures it) or as slow as a thousandth of a millimetre per minute. However, what matters most is that speeds can be accurately controlled.

Precision determines the standards of technology. At the beginning of the century technology could manage with an accuracy of one-tenth of a millimetre, whereas nowadays it must be within millionths of a millimetre. Precision is a requirement of the times.

Let's take, for example, microelectronics. Information can be recorded in a computer's memory by a laser beam, but a particularly precise "hand" is required to make it move within a semiconductor crystal literally from one atom to another. Vibration motors can do the job. The vibration motor can be used in every possible device, such as a tape-recorder or a record-player.

Note