South Korean man crushed to death after Robot confused him for a box of vegetables
According to a report by Yonhap news agency, the robot's arm - while functioning - was handling boxes of peppers. Then, it reportedly malfunctioned, and, instead of picking up a box, it picked up a man.
An industrial robot in South Korea tragically took the life of a man, who was unable to differentiate him from a box of vegetables. The victim, an employee of the robotics company, met his untimely fate on Wednesday while undertaking a routine inspection at an agricultural distribution center located in South Gyeongsang province.
As per Yonhap news agency’s revelations, the robotic arm that was involved in the accident was in action, lifting pepper boxes and placing them onto pallets. Then, due to an alleged malfunction, it picked up the man instead of a box. The following sequence of events was tragic – it drove the man to the conveyor belt, causing crucial injuries to his face and chest.
“Robots have limited sensing and thus limited awareness of what is going on around them,” warns Christopher Atkeson, a robotics expert at Carnegie Mellon University
Despite being rushed to the hospital, the extent of damage proved fatal. The employee, said to be in his 40s, was examining the sensor of the in preparation for a test run at the pepper sorting facility. The fatal test was slated for 6th November initially, but due to issues with the sensor, it was postponed by two days.
Notably, post-incident, an official from the Dongseong Export Agricultural Complex – the parent organization of the plant, voiced the need for a “precise and safe” system to prevent such incidents in the future.
Earlier this year in May, another incident in South Korea was reported where a man got trapped by a robot while at work in an auto parts manufacturing plant, sustaining serious injuries.
According to a study published by the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, industries in the US have been responsible for the loss of at least 41 lives between 1992 and 2017. Among these accidents, stationary contributed to 83% of the fatalities. Disturbingly, “Many of these striking incidents occurred while maintenance was being performed on a robot,” as discovered by the study.
Back in 2015, a 22-year-old worker at a Volkswagen factory in Germany also lost his life to a robot.
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