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Roboethics: Social and Ethical Implications

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Springer Handbook of Robotics

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Abstract

This chapter outlines the main developments of roboethics 9 years after a worldwide debate on the subject – that is, the applied ethics about ethical, legal, and societal aspects of robotics – opened up. Today, roboethics not only counts several thousands of voices on the Web, but is the issue of important literature relating to almost all robotics applications, and of hundreds of rich projects, workshops, and conferences. This increasing interest and sometimes even fierce debate expresses the perception and need of scientists, manufacturers, and users of professional guidelines and ethical indications about robotics in society.

Some of the issues presented in the chapter are well known to engineers, and less known or unknown to scholars of humanities, and vice versa. However, because the subject is transversal to many disciplines, complex, articulated, and often misrepresented, some of the fundamental concepts relating to ethics in science and technology are recalled and clarified.

A detailed taxonomy of sensitive areas is presented. It is based on a study of several years and referred to by scientists and scholars, the result of which is the Euron Roboethics Roadmap. This taxonomy identifies the most evident/urgent/sensitive ethical problems in the main applicative fields of robotics, leaving more in-depth research to further studies.

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Abbreviations

3-D:

three-dimensional

ACFV:

autonomous combat flying vehicle

AFV:

autonomous flying vehicle

AI:

artificial intelligence

AMC:

Association for Computing Machinery

AUV:

autonomous underwater vehicle

CARE:

coordination action for robotics in Europe

CAT:

computer-aided tomography

CE:

computer ethic

CEPE:

Computer Ethics Philosophical Enquiry

COMEST:

Commission mondiale d’éthique des connaissances scientifiques et des technologies

CPSR:

Computer Professional for Social Responsibility

ELS:

ethical, legal and societal

EURON:

European Robotics Research Network

FAO:

Food and Agriculture Organization

GPS:

global positioning system

IAB:

International Association of Bioethics

IACAP:

International Association for Computing and Philosophy

ICT:

information and communication technology

IED:

improvised explosive device

IE:

information ethics

IFR:

International Federation of Robotics

ILO:

International Labor Organization

ISO:

International Organization for Standardization

MIT:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

NMR:

nuclear magnetic resonance

OECD:

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

ORI:

open roboethics initiative

PAPA:

privacy, accuracy, intellectual property, and access

PET:

positron emission tomography

RCR:

responsible conduct of research

sci-fi:

science fiction

SRI:

Stanford Research Institute

TC:

technical committee

UAV:

unmanned aerial vehicle

UGV:

unmanned ground vehicle

UNESCO:

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Electronics, Computer and Telecommunication Engineering, National Research Council (CNR), Via De Marini 6, 16149, Genoa, Italy

    Gianmarco Veruggio

  2. Scuola di Robotica, Piazza Monastero 4, 16149, Genoa, Italy

    Fiorella Operto

  3. Department of Computer Science, University of Southern California, 612 South Vis Belmonte Court, CA 93420, Arroyo Grande, USA

    George Bekey

Authors
  1. Gianmarco Veruggio
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  2. Fiorella Operto
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  3. George Bekey
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gianmarco Veruggio .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Via Claudio 21, 80125, Naples, Italy

    Bruno Siciliano

  2. Department of Computer Sciences, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall, CA 94305, Stanford, USA

    Oussama Khatib

Video-References

Video-References

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Roboethics: Introduction available from http://handbookofrobotics.org/view-chapter/80/videodetails/773

:

Roboethics: Prosthesis available from http://handbookofrobotics.org/view-chapter/80/videodetails/774

:

Roboethics: Military robotics available from http://handbookofrobotics.org/view-chapter/80/videodetails/775

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Veruggio, G., Operto, F., Bekey, G. (2016). Roboethics: Social and Ethical Implications. In: Siciliano, B., Khatib, O. (eds) Springer Handbook of Robotics. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32552-1_80

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32552-1_80

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-32552-1

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