Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies

WorldCIST 2017: Recent Advances in Information Systems and Technologies pp 754–762Cite as

Verification Methodology of Ethical Compliance for Users, Researchers and Developers of Personal Care Robots

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 570))

Abstract

Demographic change is boosting the use of assistive technologies, like Personal Care Robots (PCR), in elderly care. However, the legislation and guidelines for the development of PCR is still fragmented and structured tools and procedures are required. This article presents a proposal for a Verification Methodology for Ethical Compliance in robotic platforms development. Differently from other projects and publications, it does not devote itself to discourse on ethical and moral issues itself but in suggesting a structured method to approach these issues, facilitating an integrated and holistic approach that can ensure more adjusted and fruitful outcomes. This methodology works around a constellation of actors - researchers, developers and end-users – that were involved in all different phases of its development and should also intervene in its enforcement.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    GrowMeUp project, funded under H2020 PHC-19-2014 “Advancing active and healthy ageing with ICT: service robotics within assisted living environments” (Grant Agreement: 643647).

  2. 2.

    In: http://www.growmeup.eu/index.php/dissemination/deliverables.

References

  1. European Commission: the 2015 ageing report - underlying assumptions and projection methodologies, http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/european_economy/2014/pdf/ee8_en.pdf

  2. European commission: final evaluation of the ambient assisted living joint programme (2013). https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/news/report-final-evaluation-ambient-assisted-living-joint-programme

  3. Palmerini, E., Azzarri, F., Battaglia, F., Bertolini, A., Carnevale, A., Carpaneto, J.,Warwick, K.: Regulating emerging robotic technologies in Europe: robotics facing law and ethics (2014). http://www.robolaw.eu/RoboLaw_files/documents/robolaw_d6.2_guidelinesregulatingrobotics_20140922.pdf

  4. Turkle, S., Taggart, W., Kidd, C.D., Dasté, O.: Relational artifacts with children and elders: the complexities of cybercompanionship. Connection Sci. 18(4), 347–362 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Sparrow, R., Sparrow, L.: In the hands of machines? the future of aged care. Mind Mach. 16, 141–161 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. European commission: Opinion N. 26, ethics of information and communication technologies, Brussels, 22nd February 2012

    Google Scholar 

  7. Communication from the commission to the European parliament, the council, the European economic and social committee and the committee of the regions: a Internet das coisas - um Plano de ação para a Europa, Brussels, 18 June 2009, p. 2 (2009) http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2009:0278:FIN:ES:PDF

  8. Council directive 85/374/EEC of 25th July 1985. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/PT/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:31985L0374&from=PT

  9. Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data. http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/treaties/html/108.htm

  10. European convention of human rights. http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_POR.pdf

  11. European law on data protection manual. Office for European Union Publications, Luxembourg

    Google Scholar 

  12. Council of ethics for the life sciences: opinion n. 60, opinion on health information and health information records, of the national, pp. 3–4 (2011). http://www.cnecv.pt/admin/files/data/docs/1318269169_CNECV%20P_60_2011%2010.10.11.pdf

  13. European commission: Internet of things. In: Digital Agenda for Europe (2015). https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/internet-things

  14. Directive 95/46/EC of the European parliament and of the council of 24th October 1995. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A31995L0046

  15. Directive 1999/44/EC of the European parliament and of the council of 25th May 1999. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31999L0044:EN:HTML

  16. Directive 2001/20/EC of the European parliament and of the council of 4th April 2001. http://www.eortc.be/services/doc/clinical-eu-directive-04-april-01.pdf

  17. Directive 2001/95/EC of the European parliament and of the council of 3rd December 2001. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32001L0095

  18. Directive 2006/42/EC of the European parliament and of the council of 17th May 2006. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2006:157:0024:0086:EN:PDF

  19. Directive 2007/47/EC of the European parliament and of the council of 5th September 2007. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32007L0047&qid=1432047705412&from=PT

  20. Leroux, C., Labruto, R.: Ethical legal and societal issues in robotics (2012). http://www.eurobotics-project.eu/cms/upload/PDF/euRobotics_Deliverable_D.3.2.1_ELS_IssuesInRobotics.pdf

  21. Calo, M.R.: Robots and privacy. In: Lin, K., Bekey, G.A., Abney, K. (eds.) Robot Ethics: the Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics. MIT Press, Cambridge (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  22. European commission: Ethics for researchers (2013). http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/fp7/89888/ethics-for-researchers_en.pdf

  23. Hoorn, J.F.: Machine Medical Ethics: When a Human Is Delusive but the Machine Has Its Wits About Him. CAMeRA—Center for Advanced Media Research, VU University, Amsterdam (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  24. IEEE/EPSRC: Principles of robotics: regulating robots in the real world. Technical report, Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, EPSRC (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Ingram, B., Jones, D., Lewis, A., Richards, M., Rich, C., Schachterle, L.: A code of ethics for robotics engineers. In: Proceedings of the 5th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Leenes, R., Lucivero, F.: Laws on robots, laws by robots, laws in robots: regulating robot behaviour by design, law, innovation and technology

    Google Scholar 

  27. Leroux, C., Labruto, R., Boscarato, C., Caroleo, F., Günther, J., Löffler, S., Hilgendorf, E.: Suggestion for a green paper on legal issues in robotics (2012). http://www.eu-robotics.net/cms/upload/PDF/euRobotics_Deliverable_D.3.2.1_Annex_Suggestion_GreenPaper_ELS_IssuesInRobotics.pdf

  28. Scheutz, M.: The inherent dangers of unidirectional emotional bonds between humans and social robots. In: Lin, P., Bekey, G.A., Abney, K. (eds.) Robot Ethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics. MIT Press, Cambridge (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Sharley, A., Sharley, N.: Granny and the robots: ethical issues in robot care for the elderly. Ethics Inf. Technol. 14, 27–40 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Social research association: ethical guidelines (2003). http://the-sra.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/ethics03.pdf

  31. Wallach, W., Allen, C.: Moral machines: teaching robots right from wrong (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  32. World Health Organization: Standards and operational guidance for ethics review of health-related research with human participants (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  33. UNESCO: Universal declaration on bioethics and human rights (2005). http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=31058&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

  34. WMA declaration of Helsinki - ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3

  35. European union agency for fundamental rights: handbook on European data protection law (2014). http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Handbook_data_protection_ENG.pdf

  36. European commission proposal for an european parliament and council directive on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (general regulation on data protection), COM, November 2012 final, Brussels, 25th January 2012. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/pt/news-room/content/20140307IPR38204/html/Parlamento-Europeu-refor%C3%A7a-prote%C3%A7%C3%A3o-dos-dados-pessoais-dos-cidad%C3%A3os

  37. Moedas, C.: Answers to the European parliament questionnaire to the commissioner-designate carlos moedas, research, science & innovation. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2014_2019/documents/itre/dv/moedas_/moedas_en.pdf

  38. national council of ethics for the life sciences: 78/CNECV/2014 - opinion on a code of ethics for the health sector (2014). http://www.cnecv.pt/admin/files/data/docs/1418752858_CNECV_P_78_EN_final.pdf

  39. National council of ethics for the life sciences: 60/CNECV/2011 - opinion on health information and computer health record (2011). http://www.cnecv.pt/admin/files/data/docs/1319197229_EN%20P_60_CNECV_2011.pdf

  40. National council of ethics for the life sciences: 80/CNECV/2014 - opinion on the vulnerabilities of elderly people, especially of those who reside in institutions (2014). http://www.cnecv.pt/admin/files/data/docs/1417190005_Opinion%2080%20CNECV%202014%20EN.pdf

  41. National council of ethics for the life sciences: work document 26/CNECV/99 ethical reflection on human dignity (1999). http://www.cnecv.pt/admin/files/data/docs/1273505218_p026_en.pdf

  42. National council of ethics for the life sciences: Reflexão ética sobre a dignidade humana, Work document 26/CNECV/99 (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Silver economy. http://www.smartsilvereconomy.eu/

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work is partially supported by the GrowMeUp project, funded by the European Commission within the H2020-PHC-2014, (Grant Agreement: 643647).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cáritas Diocesana de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Carina Dantas, Pedro Balhau, Ana Jegundo & João Quintas

  2. Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Luís Santos

  3. Citard Services Ltd., Nicosia, Cyprus

    Christophoros Christophorou & Eleni Christodoulou

  4. Zuyderland, Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands

    Cindy Wings

  5. Instituto Pedro Nunes, Coimbra, Portugal

    João Quintas

Authors
  1. Carina Dantas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pedro Balhau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ana Jegundo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Luís Santos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Christophoros Christophorou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Cindy Wings
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. João Quintas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Eleni Christodoulou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carina Dantas .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. DEI/FCT, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Baixo Mondego, Portugal

    Álvaro Rocha

  2. Nova IMS, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

    Ana Maria Correia

  3. College of Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

    Hojjat Adeli

  4. DSI/EEUM, Universidade do Minho, Guimarães, Portugal

    Luís Paulo Reis

  5. DIMES, Università della Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy

    Sandra Costanzo

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this paper

Cite this paper

Dantas, C. et al. (2017). Verification Methodology of Ethical Compliance for Users, Researchers and Developers of Personal Care Robots. In: Rocha, Á., Correia, A., Adeli, H., Reis, L., Costanzo, S. (eds) Recent Advances in Information Systems and Technologies. WorldCIST 2017. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 570. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56538-5_76

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56538-5_76

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-56537-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-56538-5

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation