Man Crushed To Death After Industrial Robot Mistakes Worker For Vegetables In South Korea

In a tragic accident, a South Korean worker was killed by an industrial robot that mistook him for a box of vegetables at an agricultural produce distribution center.

What Happened: The man, in his 40s, was investigating a malfunction in the robot’s sensor at a facility in South Gyeongsang province when the robot, which was stacking boxes of peppers onto a pallet, grabbed the worker, reported The Telegraph.

It is reported that the robot’s arm forced the man into a conveyor belt, causing severe injuries to his face and chest. Despite being immediately taken to the hospital, the man succumbed to his injuries.

A representative from the Dongseong Export Agricultural Complex, the facility’s owner, called for a “precise and safe” system to be put in place in the wake of the accident.

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Why It Matters: This isn’t the first event of this kind in South Korea. Earlier this year, another man was seriously injured when a robot trapped him at a car manufacturing plant.

Industrial robots, used for routine tasks ranging from assembly to goods sorting, have been involved in accidents in other countries as well, including the U.S. and Germany.

This incident underscores the growing concern about safety measures in the deployment of industrial automation. With an increasing reliance on robots for routine tasks, the need for stringent safety protocols and fail-safe mechanisms has become more apparent than ever.

A recent report in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine revealed that from 1992 to 2017, industrial robots were responsible for the deaths of 41 individuals in the U.S. Of these fatalities, 83 percent resulted from incidents involving immobile robots, while the remaining 17 percent were linked to mobile robots.

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Image by WorldSkills UK via Flickr