LYRICS
Imagine a wheelchair equipped with wheels flexible enough to move over all kinds of barriers: including the raised edges of streets.
想象一下，一辆轮椅配备了足够灵活的轮子，可以跨越各种障碍：包括街道边缘的凸起。
A robotic delivery vehicle could use the same wheels to go up stairs to deliver food or other purchases.
机器人送货车辆也可以用这种轮子上楼送食物或其他物品。
This is what researchers from the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) see as the future for their 'morphing' wheel.
这就是韩国机械与材料研究所(KIMM)的研究人员对他们的“变形”车轮的未来的看法。
The wheels can change their shape and can roll over barriers up to 1.3 times their radius.
这种车轮可以改变形状，可以翻越半径1.3倍的障碍物。
The radius of a wheel is half its height.
轮子的半径是指它高度的一半。
Other possible applications for the morphing wheel include robots that gather information about an enemy in the battlefield.
变形轮还可能被用来装在在战场上收集敌人信息的机器人上。
The KIMM team also hopes that morphing wheels will one day be used with two and four-legged robots.
KIMM团队还希望，有朝一日，两条腿和四条腿的机器人能用上变形轮子。
Now, the movement of those machines is limited. Too much shaking is also a problem.
但是，这些机器的移动也是有限制的。它还有个问题就是晃动太厉害。
With the morphing wheels, the robots could carry objects that need smooth movement for industrial use.
有了变形轮，机器人可以携带需要平稳移动的物体，用于工业用途。
Song Sung-hyuk is the lead researcher at South Korea's KIMM and a member of the AI robotics research team.
宋成赫是韩国KIMM研究所的首席研究员，也是人工智能机器人研究团队的成员。
He said the goal is to make the wheels work at the average speed of a car.
他说，他们的目标是让车轮能以汽车的平均速度工作。
That is about 100 kilometers per hour.
达到每小时约100公里。
Wheels developed for a similar purpose, such as airless wheels, have flexibility but are limited in their ability to overcome barriers, said Song.
宋成赫说，为类似目的开发的车轮，如无气车轮，具有灵活性，但克服障碍的能力有限。
The difference between airless wheels and the morphing wheel is that airless wheels are always soft, but the morphing wheels can change from hard to soft when they meet a barrier.
无气车轮和变形车轮的不同之处在于，无气车轮始终是软的，但在遇到障碍时，变形车轮可以从硬变软。
They can then return to being hard to permit faster travel where there are no barriers.
然后，在没有障碍的情况下，它们又会变硬，以便跑的更快。
The morphing wheel is made of an outer circle of chain and a series of wires running through its central hub.
变形轮由一个外圈的链条和一系列穿过其中央轮毂的电线组成。
A sensor controls the stiffness of the wires in reaction to the barriers in its path.
由传感器来控制导线的硬度，以应对其行进路上的障碍物。
Song's team demonstrated to Reuters a model of a wheelchair riding on morphing wheels as it climbed stairs with 18-cm steps.
宋成赫的团队向路透社展示了一个装有变形轮子的轮椅模型，它在攀爬18厘米的台阶。
The team has also tested a device using the wheel at speeds of up to 30 kilometers an hour.
该团队还测试了一种使用车轮的装置，时速高达30公里。
I'm Andrew Smith.
我是安德鲁·史密斯。
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