A municipality in central South Korea has announced an investigation after a robot, which had been assisting with municipal tasks, threw itself down the stairs.
A municipal team official stated that the robot had been helping residents of Gumi City with administrative tasks for about a year.
It was found last week, inactive, at the bottom of the stairs.
The official added that eyewitnesses saw the robot spinning around before its fall, as if something was wrong, and noted that the investigation is ongoing to uncover the circumstances of the incident.
“The robot’s parts have been collected and will be analyzed by the company that designed it,” the official continued.
Another official expressed regret, saying, “It was officially part of the city’s municipality and was one of us.”
The robot, developed by Bear Robotics in California, worked from 9 AM to 6 PM and had its own public service card.
Unlike other robots restricted to one floor, it could call the elevator and move between floors.
Local newspapers covered the story, with one headline asking, “Why did this diligent public servant behave this way?” or whether “the work was too hard for the robot.”
South Korea is known for its fascination with robots, boasting the highest robot density in the world, with one robot for every ten employees, according to the International Federation of Robotics.
