Is this the beginning of robots turning against their masters? A 22-year-old contractor was killed by a robot at the Volkswagen factory in Baunatal, Germany, inquisitor.com reports.
The man, whose identity was not released, was working with a stationary robot that is bolted to the floor and with a free-rotating arm that carries out work. The robot was housed inside a specialized cage to prevent incidents as such from happening. However, despite the safety precaution in place, the man apparently went against the guideline and stepped inside the cage to continue with the installation.
Heiko Hillwig, a representative of the German automobile manufacturer, reveals that the stationary robot, which was programmed to lift machines, grabbed the victim and smashed him against a giant metal plate. The man, from a firm based in Meissen, Germany, endured severe injuries to the chest and was even resuscitated on the scene but eventually died from his injuries in the hospital. There was a second contractor present at the scene during the incident but was fortunately unharmed.
According to Hillwig, the initial conclusions suggests human error as the cause of the accident rather than a malfunction with the robot, he says in a dailymail.co.uk report. 'It normally operates within a confined area at the plant, grabbing auto parts and manipulating them.'
Deaths caused by robots are not common. The very first recorded incident dates back to 1979 at a Ford plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, US. A worker was said to have been struck in the head by a one-ton production-line robot.
Two years after the Michigan incident, an employee at a Kawasaki Heavy Industries plant in Japan was pushed by a robot's hydraulic arm into a grinding machine after forgetting to turn it off properly.
Experts believe that this most recent incident cannot hold the robot responsible.
"It's important to understand that with present technology we cannot 'blame' the robot," says Dr Blay Whitby, lecturer in artificial intelligence at the University of Sussex.
"They are not yet at a level where their decision-making allows us to treat them as blameworthy. This unfortunate accident is technically and morally comparable to a machine operator being crushed because he didn't use the safety guard."
Noel Sharkey, emeritus professor of AI and robotics at the University of Sheffield, said: 'Robots do not act of their own volition and would not attack a human unless programmed to do so.'
The robot involved in the Volkswagen Plant incident was actually owned by the contactors. Whether to file charges, the prosecutors are still unsure. And if so, against whom.
