The robot revolution has begun.
A robot called Xiao Pang or “Little Chubby,” went wild at a Chinese trade show last week, shattering glass and sending a human bystander to the hospital.
The robot apparently “went rogue” during the Hi-Tech Fair in Shenzhen, and became the first of its kind to injure a human in China, per the state-run People’s Daily.
The organizer of the event said the problem was a simple control error, claiming the robot’s human operator hit “forward” instead of “reverse.”
State-run CCTV shared an image of the unidentified man on a stretcher:
He suffered an ankle injury from broken glass that required stitches, the news agency said.
CCTV also shared an image of some of the damage left behind after the “Little Chubby” attack:
The robot is designed for education and aimed at children between the ages of 4 and 12, What’s On Weibo reported. After this incident, however, parents will likely think twice before leaving a kid alone with this machine.
According to Mashable, a statement on the company’s website said the robot has sensors to stop it from hitting things when on its own, but those were disabled when the control panel was open.
The robot has not commented. Yet.
Over the summer, a robot security guard at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, California, knocked over a child and injured his leg. Although Knightscope, the company that makes the robot, apologized to the family, it also insisted that the robot was actually trying to avoid the child when the two collided.
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