Robot kills a man at Manesar factory, is the Age of Terminator finally here?

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This one's straight out of a Terminator film. Sharp welding sticks jutting out of the robotic arm of a machine pierced a worker killing him at a factory here on Wednesday. The worker had apparently moved too close to the robot while adjusting a metal sheet that had come unstuck.

The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital but he was dead by the time he was wheeled in. Ramji Lal (24), from Unnao, UP, worked as a loader for SKH Metals, an auto ancillary company, at the Industrial Model Township (IMT) Manesar. He joined a year-and-a-half ago.

Lal was at work in the welding unit that has special-purpose machines and robotic welding lines. Around 63 workers and 39 robots were on duty when the accident took place.

"The robot is pre-programmed to weld metal sheets it lifts. One such sheet got dislodged and Lal reached from behind the machine to adjust it. This was when welding sticks attached to the pre-programmed device pierced Lal's abdomen," a co-worker said.

Another shop floor colleague claimed that had Lal approached the robot from the front and hadn't stooped to adjust the sheet, the accident wouldn't have happened.

The Haryana based factory caters to the steel requirements of automotive industries.

The incident comes just a month after reports of another instance when a robot 'killed' a man in a factory. A robot killed a worker at a Volkswagen plant in Germany in July after grabbing him and thrusting him against a metal plate. The man succumbed from injuries to his chest. The 22-year-old was part of a team that was setting up the stationary robot when the accident took place.

The Dawn of Killer Robots