Unimals are pretty simple, having spheres for heads and cylinders for limbs.

unimal的模样非常简单，头是球体，胳膊或腿是圆柱体。

The team's robots, which they dub " unimals" , are not things of metal and plastic.

这支团队的机器人——取名“unimal”（通用动物）——不是用金属和塑料制成的。

To begin with, the unimals were given a variety of randomly assigned shapes, but with identical software running each of them.

首先，研究人员给unimal提供了各种随机分配的形状，但每个形状都有相同的软件运行。

Unimals were withdrawn from the fray after ten generations of evolution, and Dr Gupta reckons about 4,000 varieties of them underwent training.

经过十代的进化后结束比赛，古普塔博士估计它们中大约有4000个变种接受了训练。

Even though he held the software constant from generation to generation, it became more efficient at learning as the unimals' bodies evolved.

尽管他一代又一代地保持软件不变，但随着unimal的进化，它在学习方面也更加高效。

Newly created unimals started in a virtual boot camp, in which the derl learned enough about the world to face the challenges to come.

新创建的unimal始于一个虚拟的新兵训练营，derl可以对世界有足够多的了解以应对即将到来的挑战。

In this evolution of unimals' morphology to promote the ability to learn, Dr Gupta sees a version of something called the Baldwin effect.

古普塔博士看到了鲍德温效应在竞赛中的体现，在unimal的进化过程中促进了学习能力的提高。

Crucially, though, the researchers found that the most successful unimals learned tasks in half the time that their oldest ancestors had taken, and that those which evolved in the toughest arenas were the most successful of all.

然而，至关重要的是，研究人员发现，最成功的unimal学习任务的时间是它们最古老的祖先所用时间的一半，而那些在最艰苦的环境中进化出来的unimal是最成功的。