PHOTOS: Robot crushes factory worker to death after ‘mistaking him for box of peppers’

A man has been crushed and killed by a robot at a pepper sorting plant in Gyeongsang province, South Korea.

The robot was reported to have failed to differentiate between the man and the boxes of peppers it was handling.

According to Yonhap South Korean News Agency, the incident occurred on Wednesday when the man, identified as a robotics company employee in his 40s, was inspecting the robot.

According to Yonhap, the robot was responsible for lifting boxes of peppers and transferring them onto pallets.

The man, a worker from the company that manufactured the robotic arm, was said to have been checking the robot’s sensor operations late into the night, ahead of its test run scheduled for November 8.

The robotic arm, confusing the man for a box of vegetables, grabbed him and pushed his body against the conveyer belt.

He sustained injuries to his face and chest and was taken to hospital where he died.

The test had originally been planned for November 6, but was pushed back by two days due to problems with the robot’s sensor.

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.