Kenji Urada (c. 1944 – July 4, 1981) was a Japanese factory worker who was killed by a
robot
A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...
. Urada is often incorrectly reported to be the first person killed by a robot,
but
Robert Williams Robert, Rob, Robbie, Bob or Bobby Williams may refer to:
Architecture
* Train %26 Williams#Robert Edmund Williams, Robert Edmund Williams (1874–1960), Canadian-American architect
* Robert Williams (architect) (1848–1918), Welsh architect a ...
, a worker at the
Ford Motor Company's Michigan Casting Center, had been killed by a robot over two years earlier, on January 25, 1979.
Urada was a maintenance worker at the
Kawasaki Heavy Industries
is a Japanese Public company, public multinational corporation manufacturer of motorcycles, engines, Heavy equipment (construction), heavy equipment, aerospace and Military, defense equipment, rolling stock and ships, headquartered in Minato, To ...
plant in
Akashi.
He died while checking a malfunctioning robot; after jumping over a safety barrier, which was designed to shut down power to the machine when open,
he apparently started the robot inadvertently. The robot, built by Kawasaki under a license from
Unimation
Unimation was the world's first robotics company. It was founded in 1962 by Joseph F. Engelberger and George Devol and was located in Danbury, Connecticut. Devol had already applied for a patent an industrial robotic arm in 1954; was issued in ...
, pinned him against an adjacent machine
and either crushed him
or stabbed him in the back.
Other workers in the factory were unable to stop the machine as they were unfamiliar with its operation.
International newswire service
UPI
United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...
reported Urada was the first human killed by a robot on December 8, 1981.
The circumstances of his death were not made public until after an investigation by the Hyōgo labor standards bureau was completed.
The investigation concluded that workers were not sufficiently familiar with the machines and the machines were not sufficiently regulated. The robot that killed Urada was removed from the Akashi plant, and man-high fences were erected around the other two robots in the plant in the wake of the accident.
See also
*
List of unusual deaths in the 20th century
References
External links
*
1940s births
1981 deaths
Deaths caused by industrial robots
Accidental deaths in Japan
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