A South Korean worker was crushed to death by an industrial robot that mistook him for a box of vegetables, local authorities said Thursday.
The unidentified worker in Goseong succumbed to head and chest injuries Tuesday night after the robot grabbed him and pushed him onto a conveyor belt, police said.
He reportedly worked for the company installing the robot and was sent to the vegetable plant to make sure the model was working properly.
The device involved in the accident was one of two pick-and-place robots at the facility, which packages peppers and other products for export to other Asian countries, according to police.
The machines are common in South Korea, which is grappling with a shrinking workforce.
The robot’s sensors are designed to identify boxes, an anonymous police officer said.
Surveillance footage from Tuesday’s tragedy indicated the man approached the device with a box in his hands, which may have prompted a response.
The fatal incident took place at a vegetable packing plant in South Korea.AP
“This is clearly not a case of a robot mistaking a human for a box; it was not a very sophisticated machine,” the officer said.
“It was not an advanced robot powered by artificial intelligence, but a machine that simply picks up boxes and puts them on pallets,” said Kang Jin-gi, who heads the investigation department at Gosong police station.
The Goseong incident is not the first robot mishap in South Korea: In March, a manufacturing robot seriously injured an employee at an auto parts factory in Gunsan.
Last year, a robot near a conveyor belt fatally crushed a worker at a milk factory in Pyeongtaek.
In 2021, South Korea had 1,000 industrial robots per 10,000 employees, according to the International Federation of Robotics – the highest robot density in the world and more than three times that of China that same year.
Many of South Korea’s industrial robots are used in manufacturing plants, including electronics and automotive manufacturing.
With post cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn