TED2013
David Lang: My underwater robot
大卫·朗: 我的水下机器人
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大卫是一个自学成才的业余海洋学家，也可以说他训练了一个助他成为海洋学家的机器人。在一次圣诞节期间举办的演说中，TED的伙伴大卫，讲述了他和与他同样爱好海洋探索的伙伴们，如何协力建设了这个开放源代码且成本低廉的水下探索机器人。
David Lang - Maker
David Lang is a maker and the co-founder of OpenROV, a community of ocean lovers who build underwater robots. Full bio
David Lang is a maker and the co-founder of OpenROV, a community of ocean lovers who build underwater robots. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:13
(Aquatic noises)
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（水声）
00:20
So this video was taken
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这段视频是在
00:22
at Aquarius undersea laboratory
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一座海底实验室拍摄的
00:25
four miles off the coast of Key Largo,
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这座实验室距离基拉戈海岸四英里
（注：基拉戈位于美国佛罗里达州）
（注：基拉戈位于美国佛罗里达州）
00:26
about 60 feet below the surface.
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海平面以下约 60 英尺处
00:29
NASA uses this extreme environment
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美国宇航局用这种极端环境
00:31
to train astronauts and aquanauts,
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训练宇航员和海底观探员
00:33
and last year, they invited us along for the ride.
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去年，他们邀请我们一起做研究。
00:37
All the footage was taken from our open ROV,
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所有素材都来自我们的开放 ROV，
00:39
which is a robot that we built in our garage.
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它是一个我们在自己车库里制造的一个机器人
00:44
So ROV stands for Remote Operated Vehicle,
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所以 ROV是”远程操作移动工具“的缩写
00:48
which in our case means our little robot
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对我们来说，就是我们的小机器人
00:49
sends live video
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通过超薄系绳
00:51
across that ultra-thin tether
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发送实况视频
00:53
back to the computer topside.
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返回到地面上的电脑。
00:56
It's open source, meaning we publish
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它是开放资源，意思是说我们在网络上
00:58
and share all of our design files
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发布和分享所有的设计档案
01:00
and all of our code online,
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和所有的代码
01:01
allowing anyone to modify
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允许任何人调整
01:03
or improve or change the design.
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或改善，甚至更改设计。
01:06
It's built with mostly off-the-shelf parts
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制作它所使用的绝大部分部件是工业成品
01:08
and costs about 1,000 times cheaper
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所需要的费用比詹姆斯卡梅隆所使用的
01:10
than the ROVs James Cameron used
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用来探索泰坦尼克的
01:12
to explore the Titanic.
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远程操作移动工具便宜约1000倍
01:15
So ROVs aren't new.
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所以 远程操作移动工具并不是新发明出来的。
01:17
They've been around for decades.
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它们已经出现几十年。
01:19
Scientists use ROVs to explore the oceans.
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科学家们使用远程操作移动工具来探索海洋。
01:22
Oil and gas companies use them for exploration
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石油和天然气公司使用它们进行勘探
01:25
and construction.
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与建设。
01:27
What we've built isn't unique.
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我们制作的这个机器本身并不独特。
01:29
It's how we've built it that's really unique.
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它的独特性来自于我们建立它的方式与过程。
01:32
So I want to give you a quick story
of how it got started.
of how it got started.
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所以我想用一个简短的故事，讲述这个工程是如何开始的。
01:35
So a few years ago, my friend Eric and I
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几年前，我和我的朋友艾瑞克决定
01:37
decided we wanted to explore this underwater cave
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我们想探索一个水下洞穴
01:40
in the foothills of the Sierras.
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这个水下洞穴位于山脉的一个山脚下
01:41
We had heard this story about lost gold
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我们听说了一个故事，淘金热时期发生的一次抢劫中
01:43
from a Gold Rush-era robbery,
and we wanted to go up there.
and we wanted to go up there.
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抢匪劫获的黄金就藏在那里. 我们很想去那里探险
01:46
Unfortunately, we didn't have any money
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不幸的是，我们没有钱
01:48
and we didn't have any tools to do it.
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也没有任何工具。
01:49
So Eric had an initial design idea for a robot,
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所以，艾瑞克的初期构想是做一个机器人，
01:53
but we didn't have all the parts figured out,
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但是我们不知道如何找到所需的零件
01:55
so we did what anybody would do in our situation:
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所以我们做出了任何人在这样的情况下都会做的事
01:58
we asked the Internet for help.
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那就是在互联网上寻求帮助。
02:00
More specifically, we created this website,
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更具体地说，我们创建了这个网站，
02:02
openROV.com, and shared
our intentions and our plans
our intentions and our plans
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openROV.com，在这个网站上分享的我们意图和计划
02:05
For the first few months, it was just Eric and I
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最初的几个月，只是我和艾瑞克
02:07
talking back to each other on the forums,
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在论坛上相互对话，
02:10
but pretty soon, we started to get feedback
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但是，很快我们就开始接收到回复
02:12
from makers and hobbyists,
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这些反馈来自于一些创客和爱好者
02:14
and then actually professional ocean engineers
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之后，有一些专业的海洋工程师
02:16
who had some suggestions for what we should do.
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为我们提供建议，告诉我们应该怎样做。
02:19
We kept working on it. We learned a lot.
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我们一直致力于完成它，在过程中学到了很多知识。
02:21
We kept prototyping, and eventually,
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我们不断的改进我们的设计，并且最终，
02:23
we decided we wanted to go
to the cave. We were ready.
to the cave. We were ready.
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我们决定要去山洞里了。我们准备好了。
02:26
So about that time, our little expedition
became quite a story,
became quite a story,
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就在那时候，我们的小探险成为了故事，
02:29
and it got picked up in The New York Times.
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《纽约时报》刊载了我们的故事。
02:31
And we were pretty much just overwhelmed
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我们被那些
02:33
with interest from people who wanted a kit
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希望用一个工具箱就能自己动手
02:35
that they could build this open ROV themselves.
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制作一个远程操作移动工具的人们包围
02:37
So we decided to put the project on Kickstarter,
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所以我们决定将该项目放在 Kickstarter 网站上，
02:41
and when we did,
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我们这样做了，
02:42
we raised our funding goal in about two hours,
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在我们提出资金目标的大约两小时后，
02:44
and all of a sudden,
had this money to make these kits.
had this money to make these kits.
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突然之间，发现我们有足够的钱来做这些工具包了。
02:47
But then we had to learn how to make them.
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然后我们学习如何制作它们。
02:49
I mean, we had to learn small batch manufacturing.
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我的意思是，我们必须学习如何小批量得制造它们。
02:52
So we quickly learned that our garage
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我们很快发现，我们的车库
02:55
was not big enough to hold our growing operation.
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已不再足以承载我们日益增长的业务量了。
02:58
But we were able to do it, we got all the kits made,
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但我们还是完成了所有的工具箱，
03:00
thanks a lot to TechShop,
which was a big help to us,
which was a big help to us,
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非常感谢 TechShop 给我们提供的巨大帮助，
03:02
and we shipped these kits all over the world
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就在去年的圣诞节前，
03:05
just before Christmas of last year,
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我们把这些工具箱发往世界各地，
03:07
so it was just a few months ago.
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这只是几个月前发生的故事。
03:09
But we're already starting to get video
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但我们已经开始收到
03:11
and photos back from all over the world,
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从世界各地发回来的视频和照片
03:13
including this shot from under the ice in Antarctica.
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包括这张南极冰层下的照片。
03:16
We've also learned the penguins love robots.
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同时我们也发现，企鹅挺喜爱机器人的。
03:19
(Laughter)
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（笑声）
03:21
So we're still publishing all the designs online,
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所以我们继续在网上发布设计资料
03:24
encouraging anyone to build these themselves.
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鼓励人们自己动手制作这些机器人。
03:26
That's the only way that we could have done this.
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因为我们之所以能把最初的设想付诸实践，就是依靠网络资源
03:29
By being open source, we've created
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作为一个开放的资源。
03:30
this distributed R&D network,
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我们建立了分散式的研究发展网
03:33
and we're moving faster than
any venture-backed counterpart.
any venture-backed counterpart.
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并且我们比任何有风投支持的同行有着更快的进展。
03:36
But the actual robot is really only half the story.
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但是，机器人只是故事的一半。
03:40
The real potential, the long term potential,
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真正的长期潜力是
03:42
is with this community of DIY ocean explorers
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这个属于DIY海洋探索者的社群
03:45
that are forming all over the globe.
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在世界各地都形成了。
03:47
What can we discover
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当世界上有成千上万这样的设备
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when there's thousands of these devices
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我们能探索到什么呢
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roaming the seas?
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漫游海洋吗？
03:53
So you're probably all wondering: the cave.
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你们估计都在想：洞穴
03:55
Did you find the gold?
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你找到黄金了吗?
03:57
Well, we didn't find any gold,
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好吧，我们没找到任何黄金，
03:58
but we decided that what we found
was much more valuable.
was much more valuable.
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但是我们坚信，我们发现了更有价值的东西。
04:02
It was the glimpse into a potential future
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我们瞥见了，
04:04
for ocean exploration.
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海洋探险事业的未来。
04:06
It's something that's not limited to
the James Camerons of the world,
the James Camerons of the world,
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这是不再限于卡梅隆们（意指精英们）的世界，
04:09
but something that we're all participating in.
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而是我们普通大众都能参与的事情。
04:11
It's an underwater world
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水下的世界
04:13
we're all exploring together.
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我们一起去探索发现。
04:15
Thank you.
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谢谢。
04:17
(Applause)
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（掌声）
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
David Lang - MakerDavid Lang is a maker and the co-founder of OpenROV, a community of ocean lovers who build underwater robots.
Why you should listen
David Lang is a maker whose craving for adventure turned him into an amateur ocean explorer. A few years ago Lang and NASA engineer Eric Stackpole went looking for lost gold (literally) in an underwater cave in the foothills of the Sierra Navada. But they weren't quite sure how to go about it. Without much expertise (or money), the two put initial designs for an underwater robot explorer online. Soon OpenROV was born: a community of citizen ocean explorers who build and constantly improve upon these small remote operated underwater robots.
Lang is also the author of Zero to Maker and a 2013 TED Fellow. He lives on a sailboat in the San Francisco Bay.
David Lang | Speaker | TED.com