SEOUL. A tragic incident in South Korea has resulted in the death of a man who was crushed by a robot, which failed to distinguish him from the boxes of food it was handling.
The unfortunate event took place as the man, a robotics company employee in his 40s, was inspecting the robot’s operations.
The robotic arm, mistakenly identifying the man as a box of vegetables, seized him and forcefully pushed his body against a conveyor belt, causing severe injuries to his face and chest, as reported by South Korean news agency Yonhap.
Despite being rushed to the hospital, the man succumbed to his injuries.
According to Yonhap, the robot’s primary function was to lift boxes of peppers and transfer them onto pallets.
The victim had been conducting checks on the robot’s sensors as part of preparations for its upcoming test run at the pepper sorting plant in South Gyeongsang province, scheduled for November 8. Originally planned for November 6, the test was postponed by two days due to sensor issues with the robot.
The man, an employee of the company that manufactured the robotic arm, was working late into the night on Wednesday when the tragic malfunction occurred.
Following the incident, an official from the Donggoseong Export Agricultural Complex, which owns the plant, called for the establishment of a “precise and safe” system.
This accident is a grim reminder of the potential dangers associated with automated machinery. In a similar incident in March, another South Korean man in his 50s suffered severe injuries when he was trapped by a robot while working at an automobile parts manufacturing plant.
Gary P Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
