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A comment on A robot in South Korea mistook a man for a box of vegetables and killed him.

Re:A robot in South Korea mistook a man for a box of vegetab... by robomartin on Thursday November 09, 2023 @03:34PM (#38210847)
Powerful fast-moving machines will, if you are not careful, one day humble you or worse. I posted on the other thread about my experience with a CNC mill accident many years ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38210671

At a much lower power level, I had a couple harrowing experiences with powerful industrial grade table saws (4 to 5 HP spindle). In one case it grabbed this piece of plastic being cut and launched it 25 feet at such speed that it penetrated the door of a refrigerator that just happened to be in its path.

You can never take powerful equipment for granted. And, if it is computer controlled, well, make sure you can see the power cord being disconnected before you even think about getting anywhere close to parts that can hurt you.

One of the things I taught my kids when doing projects with power tools at home is to unplug the cord after you are done cutting/drilling/whatever and place the power plug right on the machine where you can see it. With time you get used to not approaching the machine unless you know where that plug is...in the wall or on the machine.

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Re:A robot in South Korea mistook a man for a box of vegetab... by Houssameddine on Thursday November 09, 2023 @03:57PM (#38211174)
But I wonder why these machines should be that powerful. Sure there are use cases when you need the machine to do heavy work, but in the case of lifting boxes of peppers and transferring them onto pallets, the robot shouldn't be that powerful to be able to crush a man's chest.
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Re:A robot in South Korea mistook a man for a box of vegetab... by bmitc on Thursday November 09, 2023 @04:02PM (#38211254)
> make sure you can see the power cord being disconnected before you even think about getting anywhere close to parts that can hurt you

That plus the cord and outlet being locked out preventing anyone from reconnecting it while you're working on it.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A robot in South Korea mistook a man for a box of vegetab... by robomartin on Friday November 10, 2023 @01:30AM (#38215756)
Devices do exist for use in industrial environments that do just that:

https://www.uline.com/Grp_465/Lockout-Tagout

Also, industrial machines often have lockout features built in:

https://www.grainger.com/know-how/equipment/kh-choosing-loto...

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