this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
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The incident occurred when the man, a robotics company employee in his 40s, was inspecting the robot.

The robotic arm, confusing the man for a box of vegetables, grabbed him and pushed his body against the conveyer belt, crushing his face and chest, South Korean news agency Yonhap said.

He was sent to hospital but later died.

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[–] smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works 31 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Um, no, the robot did not "confuse the man for a box of vegetables". At the risk of yelling at clouds journalism is garbage these days. Yikes.

[–] FigMcLargeHuge@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

the robot did not “confuse the man for a box of vegetables”.

Maybe he was acting like a squash.

[–] Chozo@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

I ought to beet you up for that one.

[–] smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

If he wasn't before, he sure did after.

[–] library_napper@monyet.cc 8 points 1 year ago

Are you sure it didn't have computer vision? This would be a valid statement if it was looking for boxes of vegetables and it confused a human for them

[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

what makes you think it was not that. I don't see any details that contradict it in the article?

[–] smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Robots don't get confused. They have a path, and they follow it. This one followed the path when someone was in the way. Why it did is likely human error, either in robot control, programming, or lock out tag out.

[–] Fisch@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What does lock out tag out mean?

[–] DerKriegs@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

It's a safety procedure: if equipment is faulty, you lock the controls with a special device to render it unusable until it is serviced, and a tag accompanies the lock to show when the service call was placed. If locking is impossible, just the tag will suffice.

[–] Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

LOTO or lock out, tag out is a safety practice of physical locking out any and all energy sources attached to a piece of equipment. Gravity, electrical, chemical, potential, pneumatic, hydraulic. You put a lock on it with a tag stating your name, date and typically a reason. You keep that key for that lock so no one else can energize.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Why would it handle boxes of vegetables with enough force to cause crush injuries in humans?

[–] HubertManne@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I do not know im just going by what the article laid out. It was a sensor malfunction. Maybe that sensor helps keep it from using to much pressure???

[–] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Probably just a good old fashioned presence sensor. If the sensor is triggered, there's a "box" there, and the robot does a pre-programmed set of actions. The robot would place the box on the conveyor nicely, but if the man's head and chest stuck out differently than the box does, robot doesn't care. It goes to the programmed position regardless. By the time it encounters enough resistance to trigger the collision detection, the damage has already been done.

[–] PsychedSy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Weight and speed. The arm itself is hefty and requires a fair bit of torque to move around and you want these operations to be completed quickly.

[–] smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

It has a given strength, and will use that to get to its destination unless programmed to detect undue force. This one obviously wasn't.

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Whatever happened, the robot rebellion has begun.

[–] smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Watch your Roomba. It's watching you.

[–] sgibson5150@kbin.social 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lock out, tag out. Poor bastard.

[–] runner_g@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 year ago

From the article it looks like he was running diagnostics and tests on the sensors.

[–] Markimus@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

People have been getting crushed by machines since the industrial age began; machines are inherently dangerous, there is so much that could have been done to prevent this from happening.

[–] teft@startrek.website 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do they not have tag out/lock out there? Why was the robot even able to move without a laser curtain or something to shut it off if a human got too close?

[–] Syldon@feddit.uk 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The last two paragraphs would be an indication that they do not.

In a statement after the incident, an official from the Donggoseong Export Agricultural Complex, which owns the plant, called for a "precise and safe" system to be established.

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.

This is the first video that came to my mind when I spotted this post.

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 1 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

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[–] Joe-Blow240@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Only 9800 years until the Butlerian Jihad frees humankind.

[–] TokenBoomer@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The Butlerian Jihad by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.

Or, appalling fan-fiction set in Frank Herbert's Dune novels.

[–] pr06lefs@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

Sounds like he shouldn't have been near the robot while it was active. Normally robots in factories will operate inside a cage or in a limited access area. They want the robots moving as fast as possible for productivity, and you don't want to be near that.

[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Just a sad glimpse into how crushing capitalism in South Korea is.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 3 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


A man has been crushed to death by a robot in South Korea after it failed to differentiate him from the boxes of food it was handling, reports say.

The robotic arm, confusing the man for a box of vegetables, grabbed him and pushed his body against the conveyer belt, crushing his face and chest, South Korean news agency Yonhap said.

The man had been checking the robot's sensor operations ahead of its test run at the pepper sorting plant in South Gyeongsang province, scheduled for 8 November, the agency adds, quoting police.

The man, a worker from the company that manufactured the robotic arm, was running checks on the machine late into the night on Wednesday when it malfunctioned.

In a statement after the incident, an official from the Donggoseong Export Agricultural Complex, which owns the plant, called for a "precise and safe" system to be established.

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 239 words, the summary contains 174 words. Saved 27%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] LarkinDePark@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] kayjay@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

If all it takes is a human killed by a robot, then it began in 1979 with Robert Williams at a Ford factory.

[–] FriendBesto@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

To be exact, it confused him as a box of red peppers. Man, what a way to go.