Dec 6, 2013 - law, philosophy, and others. Many areas ... moral dilemmas in social situations: no matter what they ... foundation as well as several methods.
tc spotlight
What Is Robot Ethics? by Matthias Scheutz
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obot ethics is a growing interdisciplinary research effort roughly in the intersection of applied ethics and robotics with the aim of understanding the ethical implications and consequences of robotic technology. This article argues that the best approach to robot ethics addresses researchers, theorists, and scholars from areas as diverse as robotics, computer science, psychology, law, philosophy, and others. Many areas of robotics are impacted, especially those where robots interact with humans, ranging from elder care and medical robotics, to robots for various search and rescue missions, including military robots, to all kinds of service and entertainment robots. While military robots were initially a main focus of the discussion (e.g., whether and when autonomous robots should be allowed to use lethal force or to make those decisions autonomously, etc.), in recent years, the impact of other types of robots, in particular social robots, has become an increasingly important topic as well (see the various articles in [2]). Consider, for example, robot R supporting an elder person P who just had a very bad night and is in agonizing pain. Since R has a goal to minimize P’s pain, it asks whether it could help P find a more comfortable position in bed, but P asks for pain medication instead. R has an obligation to consult with P’s remote human supervisor before giving P any medication, but Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2013.2283184 Date of publication: 6 December 2013
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repeated attempts to contact the supervisor fail. What should R do? Leave P in pain or give P the pain medication (e.g., because it knows that in P’s case taking pain medication is inconsequential). What would a human health-care provider do? This is one of many possible, even likely, scenarios where future autonomous robots with (limited) decision-making capabilities might find moral dilemmas in social situations: no matter what they do, they are likely to cause humans pain and suffering. The question then becomes how such robots should react, whether they should be allowed to override rules, be capable of employing moral emotions (such as empathy), and be capable of some general ethical understanding (based on some ethical theory) that can guide their reasoning, decision-making, and ultimately, justifications of their decisions and actions. Research Challenges Robot ethics is a nascent interdisciplinary field, and none of the questions raised above have been answered conclusively yet. In fact, the field has yet to develop its own integrated methodology. While there have been an increasing number of research publications on this topic, especially from the philosophy and robotics communities, that discuss ethical questions related to robot technology from different perspectives, we started to see more attempts to employ empirical methods to evaluate human attitudes and judgments about autonomous robots in ethical contexts in recent periods (e.g.,
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[1]). There is a clear trend toward applying more integrated methods and empirical studies (in addition to conceptual analysis) for determining the possible effects autonomous robots can have on humans. This will be a critical direction for forthcoming research. Similarly, it will be significant to investigate computational architectures for autonomous robots that integrate techniques for ethical reasoning and decision-making (e.g., from machine ethics) to constrain the robot’s actions and behaviors (e.g., to prevent it from performing actions that in a given context are impermissible). On the science side, we will have to thoroughly answer the questions about the human impact, both at the individual and societal levels, of robot technology. And on the technology side, we have to develop algorithms that minimize the potential hazard robots can cause, especially as automation is moving forward rapidly, and mobile autonomous robots are increasingly being deployed (e.g., from self-driving vehicles for agriculture to toys). Recent Activities in Robot Ethics Organized by the TC The Technical Committee (TC) on Robot Ethics aims to provide the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) with a framework for raising and addressing the urgent ethical questions prompted by and associated with robotics research and technology. Ever since (continued on p. 165)
strongly convex the problem is. This helps to determine a good strategy for tackling a particular problem. Equality constrained problems are another beast entirely, and Chapter 10 presents a variety of strategies for taming such a beast. Many optimization problems in robotic manipulation and locomotion are equality constrained, and so this and the next are yet more chapters of primary interest to roboticists. When dealing with problems of contact, for example, inequality constraints play a major role in simulation and control. Thus the concepts of Chapter 11, interior-point methods, are very applicable. While this is an area of high interest (and rapid development) in the optimization community, the concepts
of this chapter provide an excellent foundation as well as several methods that continue to be effective for the right problem set. The appendices provide a good mathematical background and review. This makes the book accessible for readers from many fields, which may refer to the same concepts with differing terminology. The linear algebra appendix is quite useful for those in the robotics community, since most problems in robotics are high dimensional, and thus benefit from a solid foundation and review in matrix theory. Though not for the mathematically faint of heart, this book provides an excellent overview of convex optimization, its techniques, tricks, methods,
and basic mathematical theory. It leads the reader into the domain gently and with plenty of examples, and the authors share their insights on the topic in many instances. This book provides a useful reference for the practicing engineer needing to solve an optimization problem (which may be convertible via techniques in this book into a convex problem) as well as the graduate student or researcher interested in this topic. It is a classic that stands the test of time in usefulness and practicality. Convex Optimization is definitely a recommended read. —Reviewed by Alex Simpkins, Jr., Ph.D.
tc spotlight (continued from p. 20) its inception almost a decade ago in 2004, the TC (now in its second generation) has been involved in organizing various types of meetings (from satellite workshops at main conferences to stand-alone venues) to call attention to the increasingly urgent ethical issues raised by the rapidly advancing robotics technology. For example, an increasing number of workshops and special sessions were organized recently at main conferences (e.g., the 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, IACAP 2011, AISB 2012, the Tufts 2012 conference, the first U.K. Robot Ethics Workshop, and others). And more workshops, special sessions, and standalone venues are being planned (e.g., a special session on robot
ethics at the IEEE 2014 Ethics conference). Moreover, an increasing number of publications [2], [3] as well as public lectures and interviews by former and current TC cochairs and other researchers invested in this topic were focused on raising the awareness of researchers and nonresearchers alike about the urgent need to understand the social impact and ethical implications of robot technology. Recent funding programs in Europe (e.g., the funded FP7 project “RoboLaw”) and the United States (e.g., the recent ONR MURI on “Computational Foundations of Moral Cognition”) are also specifically targeted at raising public awareness, investigating the impact of robot technology on legal issues, and developing computational
architectures that will enable robots to become more ethically adept. In addition to organize special sessions and workshops at major international venues on robot ethics, the TC will continue to raise public awareness and aims to organize a stand-alone international event in the near future. References [1] G. Briggs and M. Scheutz, “Investigating the effects of robotic displays of protest and distress,” in Proc. Conf. Social Robots, 2012, pp. 238–247. [2] P. Lin, K. Abney, and G. Bekey, Robot Ethics—The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011. [3] G. Veruggio, J. Solis, and M. Van der Loos, “RoboEthics,” IEEE Robot. Automat. Mag., vol. 18, no. 1, 2011.
STUDENT’S CORNER (continued from p. 160) In the end, I really want to thank my professors and friends who encouraged me to start this role and who supported me during this period of work. I want to thank all of
the students, senior researchers, and professors who have supported SAC events and helped the SAC to keep students’ interest continuously stimulated. In addition, I have to thank
RAS for this opportunity and maybe for future ones. I wish all of you a peaceful, exciting, and successful 2014.
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