Integrative Robo-Ethics: Uncovering Roboticists’ Attitudes to Ethics and Moving Forward

Abstract

This article proposes an integrative approach to robotics research, based on bringing interdisciplinarity into the lab. Such an approach will facilitate researchers across various fields in gaining a more nuanced understanding of technology, how it is developed, and its potential impacts. We describe how a philosopher spent time embedded in robotics labs in different European countries as part of an interdisciplinary team, gaining insights into their work and perspectives, including how robotics researchers view ethical issues related to robotics research. Focusing on issues raised by the EU Parliamentary Motion on Robotics, we developed a seminar and questionnaire that investigated questions of ethics, electronic personhood and the role of policy in research ethics. Our findings highlight that while robotics researchers care about the ethical implications of their work and support policy that addresses ethical concerns, they believe there to be significant misunderstandings in how policy makers view robotics and AI, as well as a lack of understanding of, and trust in, the role that experts outside of robotics can play in regulating robotics research effectively. We propose that an integrative approach can break down these misunderstandings by demystifying the way that knowledge is created across different fields.

Full text

International Journal of Social Robotics (2023) 15:2019–2037
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-023-00978-2
Integrative Robo-Ethics: Uncovering Roboticists’ Attitudes to Ethics
and Moving Forward
Antonio Fleres1·Louise Veling2·Frank Broz3·Luisa Damiano1
Accepted: 11 February 2023 / Published online: 8 March 2023
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2023
Abstract
This article proposes an integrative approach to robotics research, based on bringing interdisciplinarity into the lab. Such
an approach will facilitate researchers across various fields in gaining a more nuanced understanding of technology, how it
is developed, and its potential impacts. We describe how a philosopher spent time embedded in robotics labs in different
European countries as part of an interdisciplinary team, gaining insights into their work and perspectives, including how
robotics researchers view ethical issues related to robotics research. Focusing on issues raised by the EU Parliamentary Motion
on Robotics, we developed a seminar and questionnaire that investigated questions of ethics, electronic personhood and the
role of policy in research ethics. Our findings highlight that while robotics researchers care about the ethical implications
of their work and support policy that addresses ethical concerns, they believe there to be significant misunderstandings in
how policy makers view robotics and AI, as well as a lack of understanding of, and trust in, the role that experts outside of
robotics can play in regulating robotics research effectively. We propose that an integrative approach can break down these
misunderstandings by demystifying the way that knowledge is created across different fields.
Keywords Roboethics ·Social robotics ·Regulation
1 Introduction
The contemporary diffusion of robots in society is bringing
issues related to robo-ethics from the margins to the center
of the scientific debate, and is engaging a variety of disci-
plinary domains in ethical inquiries focused on the interaction
between humans and robots, as well as wider societal con-
cerns. The range of disciplines involved in these explorations
BAntonio Fleres
antoniopietrougo.fleres@studenti.iulm.it
Louise Veling
louise.veling@mu.ie
Frank Broz
f.broz@tudelft.nl
Luisa Damiano
luisa.damiano@iulm.it
1Logic and Philosophy of Science, International University of
Languages and Media, Carlo Bo Street, Milan 20143, Italy
2Department of Anthropology, Maynooth University,
Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland
3Intelligent Systems, TU Delft, Van Mourik Broekmanweg 6,
Delft 2628 XE, The Netherlands
is not limited to philosophy, usually considered as the disci-
plinary area to which ethics belongs. Increasingly, robotics
and related fields of engineering have turned their attention
to the ethical issues, to the extent that, it is to specialists
in these areas that we owe the birth of robo-ethics, and the
request for inter- and trans-disciplinary integration to support
its development [1].
The importance of ethical issues related to robotics is
amplified by the rapid development of areas such as human-
robot interaction (HRI) and social robotics. The creation
and commercialization of robots suitable for interaction
with humans—an interaction that ranges from the operator-
machine model to the social interaction model—is multi-
plying the roles that robotic artifacts can play in our social
contexts. Alongside robotic tools, today there are robots built
to be our ‘social partners’ [2,3]: robotic artifacts communi-
cating with us through social signals compatible with our
own, and designed to be integrated into our social spaces -
both public and domestic environments—to perform socially
meaningful tasks—e.g., training, coaching, educational and
therapeutic mediation, assistance... [4]. The result is that con-
temporary robots can significantly impact a wide range of
aspects of our life, extended from the way we think and
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