Worker Inspecting a Robot Is Killed by It

South Korean man was testing robotic arm at produce distribution center when it grabbed him
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 8, 2023 12:05 PM CST
For One Man, Death by Robot
This image shows a robotic arm system in a warehouse.   (Getty Images/Blue Planet Studio)

Movies show us nightmare scenarios of artificial intelligence rising up and intentionally killing humans. That's not a reality, at least as far as we know. But accidents do happen, most recently in South Korea. On Wednesday, a robotics company employee was inspecting a robot used to move boxes at a produce distribution center in South Gyeongsang province when the robot "failed to differentiate him from the boxes of food it was handling" and grabbed him, the BBC reports. The robotic arm, which was supposed to lift boxes of bell peppers onto pallets, slammed the man against a conveyer belt, crushing his face and chest, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, per AFP. The man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Though such deaths are rare, they're not unheard of. "From 1992 to 2017, workplace robots were responsible for 41 recorded deaths in the United States—and that's likely an underestimate," the Atlantic reported earlier this year. The first such death is thought to have occurred when a robot at a Ford Motor Company casting plant malfunctioned in 1979. In the South Korea case, the man in his 40s was assessing the robot's sensors in a test run of the system. The test run was initially scheduled for Monday but was pushed back to Wednesday because of an issue with the sensors, per the BBC. The incident comes just eight months after another South Korean man was seriously injured when he was trapped by a robot at an automobile parts manufacturing plant, according to the outlet. (More robot stories.)

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