South Korea: Man crushed to death by industrial robot

A man in South Korea was crushed to death by a robot after the machine apparently failed to separate him from boxes of produce he was handling, Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday. The man, a robotics company employee in his 40s, was inspecting the robot’s sensor operation at an agricultural produce distribution center in South Gyeongsang province. Yonhap quoted police as saying that the industrial robot, which was picking up boxes filled with capsicum and placing them on a pallet, malfunctioned and identified the man as one of the boxes.

According to Yonhap, the robotic arm pushed the man’s upper body down the conveyor belt, crushing his face and chest. He was transferred to hospital but later died, reports said. In March, a South Korean man in his 50s suffered serious injuries after being tripped by a robot while working at an automobile parts manufacturing plant.