A tragic incident occurred in South Korea where a man in his 40s, an employee of a robotics company, was fatally crushed by a robot that failed to distinguish him from the boxes of food it was handling.

The accident took place while the man was inspecting the robot, and the robotic arm, mistaking him for a box of vegetables, grabbed him, pushing his body against the conveyor belt and causing severe injuries to his face and chest.

Despite being rushed to the hospital, the man succumbed to his injuries.

The robot, designed for lifting boxes of peppers and transferring them onto pallets, was undergoing sensor checks ahead of its scheduled test run at a pepper sorting plant in South Gyeongsang province on November 8.

Originally planned for November 6, the test was delayed by two days due to sensor issues, BBC reported.

The victim, an employee of the company manufacturing the robotic arm, was conducting checks on the machine late into the night when the malfunction occurred.

Following the incident, an official from the Donggoseong Export Agricultural Complex, which owns the plant, called for the establishment of a “precise and safe” system to prevent such tragic accidents in the future.

Written by B.C. Begley