Robot Kills Worker at Volkswagen Factory in Germany

Robots are electronically controlled machines that assist humans by carrying specific tasks with high precision and accuracy. Robots are designed by highly talented technicians to lessen the manual work. Unfortunately, a Robot has killed a technician at a Volkswagen production plant near Kassel in Germany. The technician who tried to give life to a Robot got killed by the same Robot. When the technician was involved in its installation, the Robot grabbed him and crushed him against a metal plate. The disastrous incident took place at Volkswagen’s Baunatal plant which is located to the north of Frankfurt on Monday i.e., on June 29, 2015.

A Worker at Volkswagen Plant killed by a Robot

According to the Report of Chris Bryant, the FT’s Frankfurt correspondent:

A 21-year old man was involved completely in assembling the robot along with his colleague for designing a new production line. He works as an external contractor in the Meissen-based company. He was the only person working near the machine and busy in assembling the parts of the machine. Remaining workers were standing pretty far from the machine in the outer area. Unexpectedly, the Robot grabbed the man and he got struck in its chest and forcefully pressed him against a metal slab. Immediately, he was taken to a hospital as he was severely blown at the chest area because of the robot. He suffered a lot and later died of his severe injuries in the hospital.

Such kind of fatal incidents are very rare because robots are usually kept behind metal cages within a confined area in order to avert contact with humans. However the worker was purportedly inside the safety cage for assembling it and died because of the Robot.

Robot kills a Worker at Volkswagen Car Factory

The Volkswagen’s Baunatal plant in the central state of Hesse in Germany manufactures mainly transmissions and electric motors and employs more than 15,500 workers. Volkswagen spokesman Heiko Hillwig told the Associated Press that officials believe that human error was to blame for the incident, rather than a problem with the robot.

As per the Report from German news agency, “Prosecutors are now considering whether to bring charges, and if so, against whom.”

The German news agency said that, “We are of course carrying out a thorough investigation into the incident and cannot comment further at this time.”

All the work areas and safety rules were recently constricted and have taken necessary paces to avoid risk assessments before the introduction of new equipment.

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