A man has been crushed to death by a robot in South Korea after the machine apparently failed to differentiate him from the boxes of produce it was handling.
South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Wednesday that the man, a robotics company worker in his 40s, was inspecting the robot’s sensor operations at a distribution centre for agricultural produce in South Gyeongsang province.
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The industrial robot, which was lifting boxes filled with bell peppers and placing them on a pallet, appears to have malfunctioned and identified the man as a box, the Yonhap report published by Times of India said, citing the police.
The robotic arm pushed the man’s upper body down against the conveyor belt, crushing his face and chest.
He was transferred to the hospital but died later, the report said.
In March, a South Korean man in his 50s suffered serious injuries after getting trapped by a robot while working at an automobile parts manufacturing plant.
Seunmanuel Faleye is a brand and communications strategist. He is a covert writer and an overt creative head. He publishes Apple’s Bite International Magazine.
