Kenji Urada (c. 1944 – July 4, 1981) was a Japanese factory worker who was killed by a robot.
Urada is often incorrectly reported to be the first person killed by a robot,[1][2] but Robert Williams, 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.
The robot, built by Kawasaki under a license from Unimation,[6] pinned him against an adjacent machine[1] and either crushed him[2] or stabbed him in the back.
[5] International newswire service UPI reported Urada was the first human killed by a robot on December 8, 1981.
[5] The circumstances of his death were not made public until after an investigation by the Hyōgo labor standards bureau was completed.