This seems like a series a mishaps. If it crushed him, what would it have done to a box of peppers? It says he was inspecting sensors. Was something already going on? If so, maybe protocol needed to be different. What a tragedy.
Without knowing the setup, it's all guesswork- But if I had to guess, the program the robot ran through would be a series of movements that results in a box that is this size and this shape in this position being moved perfectly well to this particular spot.
Humans are not that size, that shape, or in that position.
I've not worked industrial in Asia, but where I have worked there has been stringent protocols around locking out machinery that has the potential to kill. For someone to enter a hazardous area, they have to remove any potential source of energy (eg, disconnecting power to motors, draining hydraulic pressure, lowering suspended loads, etc) and use a lock that only they have access to to prevent that energy returning. I'm guessing that this incident either did not have that procedure in place, or it was in place but not followed correctly.
You are likely very correct. These robots are dumb. They do the same repetitive task over and over to a high degree of precision. Flag a photo eye and it'll start the sequence to pick up a box.
This is either a lock out issue or a design issue and it is irrelevant that it was a robot.
You are never supposed to be this close to a non collaborative robot during operation. Never ever. There are a ton of safety standards around deadmanning operations if someone breaches the Arms workspace. At least here in the US they are enforced through OSHA.
If this keeps happening in South Korea, I would guess it is an issue with however their safety operations are enforced. But you should never even get close to a robot like this while it is running without a light wall or something ready to trip. Even then, most places have the cells fenced off.
Skynet later released a statement regarding the event, stating that it was "really just an honest mistake" and that it still intends to continue with their plan of letting humanity destroy itself.
A robot crushed a man to death in South Korea after the machine apparently failed to differentiate him from the boxes of produce it was handling, the Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday.
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.
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, Yonhap reported, citing the police.
The robotic arm pushed the man’s upper body down against the conveyor belt, crushing his face and chest, according to Yonhap.
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.
The original article contains 151 words, the summary contains 151 words. Saved 0%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!