To be fair, I also sometimes mistake myself for a box of vegetables.

I feel like somehow it being a robot arm with sensors/reactions makes it much more terrifying than an arm with predefined motions that operate in a loop

Ouch, what a crappy way to go.

The cleansing has begun

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 robotic arm pushed the man’s upper body down against the conveyor belt, crushing his face and chest

What a horrible way to do. Poor guy.

I’m not gonna pretend to know the intricacies of corporate South Korea, but I sure I hope his family is taken care of and the company changes their systems drastically.

The robotic arm pushed the man’s upper body down against the conveyor belt, crushing his face and chest, according to Yonhap.

I’m kind of lacking imagination how that makes sense for a robot arm that is supposed to lift boxes. Anyone have an idea?

What an insulting way to die

i can see mistaking some people for a sack of potatoes, but box of vegetables, that just sounds like an excuse

Shitty way to go, but that’s what LOTO procedures are for. You should never be working within reach of a robot arm while it has power. If it’s gotta be in a particular position for maintenance, move it to that position, then lockout all energy sources before entering its reach.

It clearly says ‘industrial’ robot. You shouldn’t be anywhere near operating industrial robots. I’m pretty sure this guy simply broke safety rules. All the robots working close to humans are purposefully designed in a way that limits their strength. If this company was doing something else they it was simply doing it wrong. This is not what ‘AI robots’ are about.

And I’m not saying that AI robots replacing people are a good thing when done right. Just that this is not it.

Interestingly, the robot model # is T1000 and the guys name was John Connor.

Robotics technician with 7 years under his belt here: these things only happen due to human error. Either at the integrators level (not the proper risk assessment made or poor programming/design) or by the worker (bypassing safety devices to get the job done). Now since this is South Korea, I don’t think they’d be bad off on providing safe machines in the first place. Since the robot unexpectedly moved, I’d have to guess the fence circuit of the robotic cell was jumped out in some way. Either by a hardwire jumper or taking the safety key off the door and jamming it in the receiving locking module. Normally when a safety circuit is broken (Emergency Stop, Fence/Gate/Light Curtain or Non-Teaching Enable Device) the robot has power to its servo motors disconnected physically.

On the integrators side,.perhaps they didn’t interface a safety gate in with the robot, perhaps they didn’t use dual chain safety (24v line and a 0v line that flip at the same time and if they don’t flip within a certain time of another, safety trips due to the time discrepancy). Doesn’t say what brand of robot was being used, but the 4 types of robots I’ve used (fanuc, abb, motoman and kuka) have had force sensitive feedback to stop the robot in the event of a collision. But that’s a collision, so even a robot at 100% collision detection is going to do some damage before it stops, possibly could kill too if programmed poorly.

There is a lot that can go wrong via human negligence of automated equipment. Having integrators and customers that understand the risks and practice good safety is vital to preventing workplace injuries on automated equipment! I’m proud to say the leading industry turnkey integrator I work for always has safety number one with our machines. Normally I would call BS if someone stated that, but we have almost endless checklists and design reviews geared towards safety. That’s what makes a great integrator standout from the mom and pop shops!