In a rarely-heard accident, a robot crushed a man to death in South Korea after it was not able to differentiate him from the food boxes it was handling, stated media reports.
The incident took place when the man, an employee in a robotics company and in his 40s, was carrying out the inspection of the robot.
Robot confused man with a box of vegetables
The robotic arm took the man for a box of vegetables and grabbed him mistakenly. It then pushed him over the conveyor belt which led to his face and chest getting crushed by the machine, stated South Korean news agency Yonhap.
The man was rushed to the hospital, however, he later succumbed to his injuries.
As reported by Yonhap, the robot was given the responsibility of picking boxes of peppers and shifting them onto pallets.
The man was checking the sensor operations of the robot before its test run at the pepper sorting plant located in South Gyeongsang province which was to be held on Wednesday (Nov 8), stated the agency while quoting police.
Originally, the test had to be carried out on November 6 but was postponed to two days because of problems with the sensor of the robot.
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The man, who worked in a company which manufactured the robotic arm, was running checks on various machines late into the night on Wednesday when the robot malfunctioned.
After the incident, an official from the Donggoseong Export Agricultural Complex, in a statement, said that there is a need to establish a “precise and safe” system.
The Donggoseong Export Agricultural Complex is the owner of the plant. In March, a South Korean man, who was in his 50s, was seriously injured after a robot trapped him when he was working at an automobile parts manufacturing plant.
(With inputs from agencies)