Having successful surgery (手术) can help save people’s life. A doctor’s hands always play an important role when doing surgery. Therefore, scientists are always working hard to use new helpers—robots—to make them more precise (准确的) in surgery.

MicroPort MedBot, a company (公司) in Shanghai, made a surgical robot to help doctors do surgery in small space. The robot has four arms and the arms can do things like a doctor’s hands. It can also give a 3D picture of the surgery. The robot won the “Super AI Leader” prize at the 2022 World Artificial Intelligence Conference.

Du Qunjian from MicroPort MedBot, said that the robot would help more doctors to do many kinds of difficult surgeries. “There are only a few excellent doctors who are able to do some surgeries across the country,” Du said. “But with the help of robots, we can solve the problem.”

“Sometimes it takes long to do surgery. And doctors will feel tired easily. With the robot, doctors can see clearly what they’re doing,” Du said. “The robotic surgery could save sick people from the danger of infection (感染) and help them get well faster after the surgery.”

In June, MicroPort MedBot finished two remote (远程的) robotic surgeries at hospitals in Jiangsu and Xinjiang. The company hopes to use 5G to help more people in poor places.

Now surgical robots are not popular in hospitals because of their high costs. But the market for them is expected to grow in China over the next few years. According to a report, the market size for surgical robots in China will grow from $400 million in 2020 to $3.8 billion in 2026.

①Who made it? ②Why was it made? ③How long did it take to make it?

④What does it look like? ⑤What can it do?

CIMON 2 is a floating computer assistant. It first appeared as a helper in the International Space Station (ISS国际空间站) on December 5th, 2019. According to the space plan, CIMON 2 will go back to Earth in 2022.

Actually, the ISS is a science lab in space. Usually astronauts stay in it for five or six months. Can you imagine how boring it is to live in a tight space with just five other people for six months? So CIMON is here.

CIMON stands for Crew Interactive Mobile(互动移动) Companion. As a product(产品) of a European airplane company, it is a robot with a round face, weighing about 5 kilograms. It has no legs or arms, but it can move where it needs to go with motors(马达) inside. Some people also describe it as “a kind of flying brain”.

CIMON keeps two jobs in mind. One is helping astronauts with tasks. The other is trying to be “someone” astronauts can talk to. Helping astronauts is easy for CIMON—it can see, hear, understand, and speak. The brain of CIMON can understand not just what people say, but also what they mean. If astronauts ask it for instructions or information, it can give answers, or use its screen to show pictures or papers, if needed.

In addition, CIMON has several cameras, which can take pictures and videos to help astronauts keep records of experiments or important actions. The more difficult part of CIMON’s job is being a companion for the astronauts. The first CIMON was able to understand 1,000 sentences, but that wasn’t enough. CIMON 1 seemed to misunderstand and become confused(困惑的) when hearing difficult sentences.

CIMON 2 has been improved so that it can find out how people are feeling. The company wants CIMON 2 to be a calm and trusted friend. This could be especially important if tension(紧张气氛) in a group of astronauts causes them to stop thinking clearly, and the astronauts don’t want to discuss with their teammates, they can turn to CIMON 2.

Athletes from various countries displayed the charm of competition sports during Beijing Winter Olympics. One of the reasons why this Winter Olympics can be successfully held is the robots who work hard behind the scenes.

In the dining hall, instead of human waiters, food arrives from the ceiling. To our surprise, the cooking robot can make delicious dishes according to the programs; food even like burgers are being prepared automatically.

It doesn’t stop there. Elsewhere in the media center, a robotic arm is serving up cocktails. It takes just 70-90 seconds to measure, shake and serve.

Look at this robot. Although it is only 140 cm tall, it only takes one minute to sterilize (灭菌) 36 square meters. The space even more than 1,000 square meters can be easily dealt by itself. The robot can hold 16 liters of disinfection (消毒) water at one time, and spray (喷雾) around through the small fan above its head.

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