A Swedish company has been fined 25,000 kronor ($3,000) after a malfunctioning robot attacked and almost killed one of its workers at a factory north of Stockholm.

“I’ve never heard of a robot attacking somebody like this,” he told news agency TT.

The incident took place in June 2007 at a factory in Bålsta, north of Stockholm, when the industrial worker was trying to carry out maintenance on a defective machine generally used to lift heavy rocks. Thinking he had cut off the power supply, the man approached the robot with no sense of trepidation.

But the robot suddenly came to life and grabbed a tight hold of the victim’s head. The man succeeded in defending himself but not before suffering serious injuries.

“The man was very lucky. He broke four ribs and came close to losing his life,” said Leif Johansson.

The matter was subject to an investigation by both the Swedish Work Environment Authority (Arbetsmiljöverket) and the police.

Prosecutor Johansson chastised the company for its inadequate safety procedures but he also placed part of the blame on the injured worker.

I’m not sure what to think about this story. Is this a contender for the www.darwinawards.com, or is this a Transformers, robots in disguise type of situation. It also doesn’t help that this “robot” is designed to smash large rocks automatically on it’s own without someone controlling it somehow. Hopefully, a robot will never confuse me for a large boulder because i’m not sure if i’m ready to kneel before our Robot Overlords.

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