????大項目，小包裝

????畢業于卡耐基梅隆大學（Carnegie Mellon University）、37年前加入通用汽車公司的索恩聽到后會心一笑。這是一個能夠讓他施展機器人技術的項目。他說：“我生來就是為了設計這個。”

????索恩說他的機器人技術背景讓4Moms設計團隊的創新變得更簡單。他說：“他們不必擔心那些內部的機械難題，因為他們知道我能解決。”

????他本以為他需要一年半的時間就能實現自己的想法，實際上卻花了五年。他說：“太讓人吃驚了。你本以為你腦子里都想好了。但是把這個自動折疊嬰兒車做出來需要花很長時間。”

????4Moms的所有產品都有高科技。制作嬰兒座椅mamaRoo時，工程師使用電極模仿人類父母彈跳和搖晃的動作。設計起來最復雜的產品要數嬰兒床，它由72根連桿構件組合而成。索恩說：“你從床中間往下推，床的四角就會向旁邊展開。”

????4Moms現在正在研發新型的座椅、手推車和嬰兒床，同時計劃制作另一個嬰兒類別的產品，該類別尚未命名。

????索恩說，把自動折疊嬰兒車帶入市場——并送入父母的懷抱，讓他感到其樂無窮。他說：“在通用公司，可能只有咖啡壺旁邊的五個電工會覺得我很厲害。現在呢，娜塔莉?波特曼，考特尼?卡戴珊、珍妮弗?加納和千千萬萬的女性都喜歡我做的事。它的回報是千百倍的。”（財富中文網）

????譯者：嚴匡正

????Big engineering projects, small packages

????Thorne, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University who had worked at GM 37 years ago, beamed. Here was a project that would let him exercise his robotics skills. "I was born to make that invention," he says.

????Thorne says his robotics background makes innovation easier for 4Moms' design team. "They don't have to worry about the mechanical goo inside because they know I can do it," he says.

????He thought he'd need a year-and-a-half to bring his vision to life. It took five. "It is shocking," he says. "You think you had it in your head. It takes a long time to make a power-folding stroller."

????All 4Moms products are high-tech. To make its mamaRoo, the engineers used electrodes to mimic human parents' bouncing and swaying motions. The most complex product to design was the playard, which operates under a 72-bar linkage. "You push it down from the center, and that causes the corners to move sideways," Thorne says.

????4moms is currently developing new models of seats, strollers, and playards and it plans to introduce a product in another, yet unnamed, baby category.

????Thorne says he's had a fun ride bringing the power-folding stroller to market -- and into the arms of parents. "At GM, maybe five electricians around the coffee pot thought I was great," he says. "Now I have Natalie Portman, Courtney Kardashian, and Jennifer Garner and thousands of other women loving what I am doing. It is a thousand times more rewarding."