Kenji Urada (c. 1944 — July 4, 1981) was one of the first persons reported to have been killed by a robot. On July 4, 1981, Urada was employed as a 37-year old maintenance engineer at a Kawasaki Heavy Industries plant. While working on a broken robot, he failed to turn it off completely, resulting in the robot pushing him into a grinding machine with its hydraulic arm. He died as a result. The circumstances of his death were not made public until...
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Kenji Urada (c. 1944 — July 4, 1981) was one of the first persons reported to have been killed by a robot. On July 4, 1981, Urada was employed as a 37-year old maintenance engineer at a Kawasaki Heavy Industries plant. While working on a broken robot, he failed to turn it off completely, resulting in the robot pushing him into a grinding machine with its hydraulic arm. He died as a result. The circumstances of his death were not made public until December 8, after an investigation by the labor standards bureau was completed.
Urada is often said to be the first person killed by a robot. However, Robert Williams was killed by a robot two years earlier, on January 25, 1979.
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