A man was crushed to death by a robot in South Korea when the machine seemingly couldn't distinguish him from the boxes of produce it was managing, according to a report by the Yonhap news agency on Wednesday. The employee, in his 40s, was examining the sensor of the robot at a warehouse handling agricultural products in South Gyeongsang Province.
According to the Yonhap news agency, the robot was in the process of lifting boxes of bell peppers when it incorrectly identified the man. According to police sources cited in the report, the mechanical arm then pushed the man's upper body onto a conveyor belt, crushing his face and chest.
Shocking Death
The man, who was an employee of a robotics company, was examining the robot's sensor at an agricultural produce distribution center in South Gyeongsang on Tuesday night.
The name of the company hasn't been revealed by police. Also, the identity of the victim hasn't been disclosed.
While the machine was lifting boxes of peppers onto a pallet, it started malfunctioning.
The robot suddenly moved toward the man he was soon grabbed by the robot's arm, pushing him against the conveyor belt, resulting in the crushing of his face and chest.
Police sources also said that the robot seemed to have malfunctioned, incorrectly identifying the man as a box.
The worker was immediately transported to a nearby hospital but died after some time, the report said.
Investigation On
Authorities are now gearing up to launch an investigation into the safety managers at the site for potential negligence in their responsibilities.
An official from the Donggoseong Export Agricultural Complex, the plant's owner, called for a "precise and safe" system to be established in a statement after the incident, as reported by Daily Mail.
The victim had supposedly stepped in to perform tests initially scheduled for November 6.
Earlier this year, in March, a 50-year-old South Korean man sustained severe injuries after being trapped by a robot while working at an automobile parts manufacturing plant.
Also, in July of last year, video footage surfaced showing a chess-playing robot causing injury by breaking a child's finger during a match in Russia.
The robot seized the seven-year-old boy's finger due to confusion caused by the child's excessively swift movements at the Moscow Open, according to Russian media reports.
Sergey Lazarev, the vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation, said that the child had breached "certain safety rules" by executing a move too quickly.
