Robot crushed man to death in South Korea

Seoul: A South Korean man was crushed to death by an industrial robot after it failed to differentiate between him and a box of vegetables.

The robotics company employee was inspecting the robot’s sensor operations at a distribution center for agricultural produce in South Gyeonhsang province when the incident happened.

The robotic arm was lifting boxes of peppers and moving them onto pallets when it allegedly malfunctioned and picked up the man instead. It then pushed the man against the conveyor belt, crushing his face and chest.

Other workers present at the scene rescued him and immediately rushed him to the nearby hospital. However, he succumbed to injuries while undergoing treatment.

The employee, said to be in his 40s, was conducting checks on its sensor ahead of its test runs at the pepper sorting plant. He had initially planned to conduct the tests on November 6, but it was pushed back two days due to reported problems with the robot’s sensor.

Following the incident, an official from the Dongseong Export Agricultural Complex, which owns the plant, called for a “precise and safe” system to be established.