Fergie's Tech Blog

21 July 1984: First Robot-Related Human Death in U.S.

Excerpt from "The Lion's Cage", Forbes, via RISKS Digest, Volume 1, Issue 20, 9 October 1985.

On July 21, 1984, at about 1 p.m., a worker at Diecast Corp. in Jackson, Mich. found Harry Allen, 34, a diecast operator pinned between a factory pole and the back of an industrial robot. But Allen's co-worker couldn't come to his aid. Using the robot's controller, the company's director of manufacturing finally unpinned Allen, who was alive but in cardiac arrest. He died in a hospital five days later. Allen had entered a restricted area, presumably to clean up scrap metal from the floor. While there, he got in the way of the robot's work, and thus became the first - and so far only - U.S. victim of an industrial robot-related accident.

More here.

posted by Fergie @ 7/21/2006 12:01:00 AM