As Industrial Robot Adoption Increases... Industrial Accidents Decrease, Health Conditions Improve

A study has found that regions with increased adoption of industrial robots experienced a reduction in worker industrial accidents and an improvement in workers' self-assessed health status.

On the 27th, the Bank of Korea announced these findings through its BOK Economic Research report titled "The Impact of Robot Adoption on Industrial Accidents and Workers' Health."

According to the report, as of 2020, South Korea had a robot density of 932 industrial robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers, the highest level in the world. The global average was only 126 robots.

Introducing industrial robots can reduce musculoskeletal risks for workers by replacing tasks such as carrying heavy objects or repetitive work, and can perform processes like welding and handling hazardous materials. However, there remains a risk of accidents during the installation, repair, preparation, and inspection of industrial robots.

The Bank of Korea analyzed data from the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service's industrial accident compensation insurance statistics and the International Federation of Robotics' industrial robot adoption data from 2010 to 2019 to assess the actual impact of robot adoption on workers' health and industrial accidents.

The results showed that regions with a significant increase in robot adoption experienced a decrease in the number of industrial accidents compared to other regions.

When robot exposure (number of robots per 1,000 workers) increased by one standard deviation (9.95 robots), the number of injured workers per 100 workers decreased by 8%. The reduction effect was most pronounced in disability benefits (-16.9%).

The Bank of Korea analyzed that this is likely due to a decrease in the proportion of workers engaged in physically demanding jobs as robots replaced labor-intensive and hazardous tasks.

When robot exposure increased by one standard deviation, the proportion of workers in physical jobs in the region decreased by 0.36 percentage points, which is about 0.8% relative to the average (44.1%).

Additionally, regions with a significant increase in robot adoption showed improvements in workers' subjective health status, with statistically significant effects observed among low-education (high school or below) workers working in environments with high robot adoption.

The Bank of Korea stated, "We have newly discovered the positive effects of industrial robots, such as the reduction of industrial accidents and improvement of workers' health," and added, "It is necessary to consider and maximize these benefits when formulating future technology adoption policies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.