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Large clothing and technology companies, including Siemens AG and Levi Strauss & Co., are developing robots to make clothes.
包括西門子公司和李維斯特勞斯公司在內的大型服裝和科技公司正在開發制作服裝的機器人。
The process of using robots or computers for human work, known as automation, has raised concerns about jobs for many people around the world.
使用機器人或計算機來代替人類工作的過程，即自動化，已經引發了世界各地許多人對工作的擔憂。
Eugen Solowjow heads an automated clothes manufacturing project at a Siemens lab in San Francisco.
尤金·索洛喬是舊金山西門子實驗室自動化服裝制造項目的負責人。
"Clothing is the last trillion-dollar industry that hasn't been automated," he said.
他說：“服裝業是最后一個尚未實現自動化的萬億美元產業”。
The worldwide clothing market is estimated to be worth $1.52 trillion, the independent research group Statista says.
據獨立研究機構Statista估計，全球服裝市場價值1.52萬億美元。
The idea of using robots to increase manufacturing in the United States grew more popular during the pandemic.
在新冠疫情期間，使用機器人來增加美國制造業的想法越來越流行。
COVID-19 interfered with supply chains around the world, highlighting the risk of using distant factories.
新冠疫情阻斷了世界各地的供應鏈，突出了使用遠程工廠的風險。
But moving clothing manufacturing back to Western markets, including the United States, is a sensitive issue.
但是，將服裝制造業轉移回包括美國在內的西方市場是一個敏感問題。
Many clothing companies are unsure about publicly discussing automation.
許多服裝公司不確定是否要公開討論自動化。
Such reports would cause public concern that automation will take jobs from workers in poor countries.
這樣的報道將會引起公眾的擔憂，即自動化將會奪走貧窮國家工人的工作。
One industry inventor, Jonathan Zornow, said he has received online criticism, and a death threat, in connection with his work.
行業發明家喬納森·佐爾諾說，他在網上收到了與他的工作有關的批評和死亡威脅。
Sewing - the act of using a needle and thread to make clothes - is especially difficult to automate.
縫紉——用針和線縫制衣服的行為——尤其難以實現自動化。
Robots do not have the fine touch skill that human hands do.
機器人沒有人手所具備的精細觸摸技能。
Robots are getting better, but it will take years to fully develop their ability to handle fabric, said five researchers questioned by Reuters.
路透社采訪的五名研究人員表示，機器人正在變得越來越好，但要完全開發出它們處理布料的能力還需要數年時間。
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.
但目前的研究也著眼于用機器完成足夠多的工作，以縮小美國工廠和外國工廠之間的成本差距。
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.
索洛喬說，西門子公司的工作是軟件開發，以引導機器人處理各種類型的材料，如細電線電纜。
He added that researchers soon realized one of the best targets for automation was clothing.
他還說，研究人員很快意識到，自動化的最佳目標之一是服裝。
Siemens worked with the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute in Pittsburgh.
西門子公司與匹茲堡的先進機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.
他們找到了一家舊金山的公司，該公司有一種很有前途的方法來解決面料問題。
The startup, Sewbo Inc., hardens, or stiffens, fabric with chemicals.
這家名為Sewbo Inc.的初創公司用化學物質使布料變硬。
The hardened fabric is then similar to other material robots can handle, like metal for example.
硬化后的布料類似于機器人可以處理的其他材料，如金屬。
Once the robots finish sewing the piece, the clothing is washed to remove the chemical.
一旦機器人完成縫制，衣服就會被清洗，以去除化學物質。
"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公司的創始人佐爾諾說：“幾乎每一件牛仔布在制作完成后都要清洗，所以這符合現有的生產體系。”
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.
這項研究工作擴大到幾家服裝公司，其中包括李維斯公司和Bluewater Defense LLC，一家總部位于美國的小型軍用服裝制造商。
They received $1.5 million in financing from the ARM Institute to experiment with the technique.
他們從先進機器人制造研究所獲得了150萬美元的資金，用于試驗這項技術。
There are other efforts to automate sewing factories.
在實現縫紉廠自動化方面，美國還付出了其他努力。
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，佐治亞州的初創公司軟件自動化公司開發了一種機器，其可以通過將布料拉到特制的桌子上來縫制衣服。
Sanjeev Bahl, who opened a small jeans factory called Saitex in downtown Los Angeles two years ago, has studied the Sewbo machines.
兩年前，桑吉夫·巴爾在洛杉磯市中心開了一家名為Saitex的小型牛仔褲工廠，他對Sewbo公司的機器進行了研究。
He is preparing to set up his first experimental machine.
他正準備安裝他的第一臺實驗機器。
At his factory in September, he said that many sewing jobs are ready for a new process.
9月，在他的工廠里，他說許多縫紉工作已經準備好采用新工藝。
"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，”他說，“我認為沒有理由不在美國重新大規模生產牛仔褲。”
I'm John Russell.
約翰·拉塞爾為您播報。
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