Failure and depression are some of the reasons that humans commit suicide; for robots it is laborious household chores.
Yes, you read that right! A robot, Irobot Roomba 760, in an Austrian household set itself ablaze when it was unable to bear the pressure of continuous work in the home. The remains of the robot were found on a kitchen hotplate in the house at Hinterstoder in Kirchdorf, Austria.
"The home-owner had put the small robot on the work surface to clean up some spilled cereal. Once the robot had done its job it was switched off but left on the kitchen sideboard. The 44-year-old house owner together with his wife and son then left the house and were not home when the robot set off," fireman Helmut Kniewasser said, according to the Daily Mirror.
He further explained that the tired android might have reactivated itself and headed to the work surface in the kitchen. The robot then pushed a cooking pot away and burnt itself leaving the 'cruel world' behind.
In the process the kitchen caught fire. The whole building was evacuated after the firemen arrived. However, the damage to the house was already done.
"It's a mystery how it came to be activated and ended up making its way to the hotplate. I don't know about the allegations of a robot suicide but the homeowner is insistent that the device was switched off," Kniewasser said.
The owner and family of the robot said they will file a lawsuit against the manufacturer.
