Bridging the robotics gap: bringing together ethicists and engineers
Place: Enschede, The Drienerburght hotel, the Netherlands
When: 11th and 12th July, 2011
“Our processes determine the quality of our products”. This quote, taken from the work of Hugh Dubberly studying the multiple design processes of technologies, sums up the main aim of high quality engineering robot design: to create high quality robots by ensuring high quality design processes. But even high quality design processes may raise ethical issues. This conference brings together roboticists and ethicists working in the field to discuss the ethics of robot design. The conference targets both philosophers and engineers that want to take-up the challenge of interdisciplinary research – both theoretically, methodologically and pragmatically. As roboticist Illach Nourbakhsh claims, some of the personal obligations of the roboticist include being aware of the ethical issues and deliberating these issues. Thus, we will discuss the more abstract philosophical issues as well as applied ethics case-study based research, in conjunction with the obstacles facing engineers and designers. In short, the conference intends to bridge the robotics gap by facilitating the dialogue between ethicists, philosophers, anthropologists and social scientists, and, computer scientists, engineers and designers, all working in the field of robotics.
As roboticist Joseph Engelberger predicted in 1989, the use of robots no longer remains exclusively in the domain of the factory (1989). The variety of intriguing applications of robots outside the factory has grown significantly in recent years, from robots used in the military to robots used in care contexts for elderly persons. The initiative to create such robots stems from a variety of reasons: a foreseen lack of resources, a lack of personnel, the wish to replace humans for mundane tasks, and/or the wish to remove humans from danger in the case of search and rescue robots or extraterrestrial robot applications. Given the morally challenging contexts into which certain robots will be stepping, ethical attention is demanded to consider the broader social and ethical issues with respect to their design and development.
Interestingly, for robots outside the factory, no “regulatory frameworks” pertaining to their design and development exist at this time. These frameworks “consist of legislation and technical standards, and interpretations thereof by certifying organizations (Van Gorp and Van de Poel, 2008: 77). These frameworks are socially sanctioned and legitimized and thus provide the grounds for “morally warranted trust in engineers”. (Van Gorp and Van de Poel, 2008: pg 88). Consequently, the public is left without a basis for trust in the design process as well as the resulting robots.
Along with the establishment of regulatory frameworks that explicitly include ethical insight, is the belief in the ethics and technology domain that designers, through their work, “materialize morality” (Verbeek, 2008). In other words, designers’ assumptions about the world and users, along with their own moral views, become tangible through the creation of an artifact. This may not be the epistemic aim of the designer but is a consequence of their work.
The study and technology of robotics, however, is in its nascent stage of development and offers a unique opportunity for incorporating ethics further upstream in its development and throughout the design process in an interdisciplinary manner. Robotics is inherently an interdisciplinary field, from understanding the task for which the robot will designed, to the marriage between hardware and software, a range of disciplines are required. With the aforementioned ideas in mind, interdisciplinary research in robotics now demands that ethicists be included throughout the design process of a range of robots to address the broader social and ethical considerations. Moreover, addressing ethics throughout the design process of a robot – and more importantly incorporating ethics into the prospective regulatory frameworks for robots – helps to establish trust in the design process, the designers and the resulting robots.
When discussing robot ethics, researchers are inclined to address ethical issues retrospectively, without the direct inclusion of engineers. This limitation has not been very fruitful. For instance, Peter Asaro’s article “What should we want from a robot ethic?” (2006) presents a compelling case for the need for a comprehensive approach to robot ethics, but stops short of presenting such an approach and does not engage with engineering issues. Wallach and Allen (2008), by contrast, attempt in their book Moral Machines to link ethical theory to engineering, but an inconvenient gap remains between the more philosophical parts of their work and the parts informed by engineering. We want to address the ethical issues pertaining to robots in a way that is philosophically interesting but also stays close to engineering design. Facilitating dialogues between philosophers and engineers, this conference aims to take up this challenge.
Aims of the Conference
Fieldwork experience brings to light many obstacles facing interdisciplinary collaboration between computer scientists, engineers, designers, psychologists, ethicists and philosophers. This insight begs the question; how to embark on interdisciplinary research in robotics? The proposed conference here aims to engage ethicists, designers, computer scientists, computer programmers, and engineers to address the following overall question: how can robots be designed in a way that supports and promotes the fundamental values of the society for which they are being designed and developed? As such, the starting point is neither to refute the use of robots nor to widely accept all applications of robots, but rather to mark a path for the ethical design of robots that takes values as its starting point.
This conference aims to explore in what way engineers can benefit from the input of ethicists and vice versa. What the ethicist can provide to the engineer/designer are three main things; identify the areas which require ethical reflection, translate ethical norms and principles into language understandable for the engineer, and provide a feedback loop for retrospectively assessing both the process and the resulting artifact. In order to do this, however, ethicists require insight into the real world obstacles and research endeavors that engineers, programmers and designers face. This conference presents a unique opportunity to bring together robotics researchers from a range of disciplines to discuss the most significant obstacles facing roboticists at this time. Ethicists will be included to discuss their interpretations of robotics issues and engineers will be asked to share their experiences/difficulties in programming. In short, the workshop is intended to “bridge the robotics gap” by allowing ethicists to provide practical insight to engineers while at the same time allowing engineers to present the areas within which they might require ethical insight. The overall aim of this workshop is to begin the path of collaboration among the robotics disciplines and to show the utility of such an approach.
Outcome of the Conference
The goal is to compile a grouping of the most successful papers presented in the form of a special edition. Potential journals include, but are not limited to; International Journal of Social Robotics, International Journal of Robotics and Automation, Journal of Robotic Systems, International Journal of Robotics research, IEEE Expert or Journal of Philosophy and Technology. Ideally the journal selected would appeal to the engineers in order to “bring ethics to the engineers”.
Content of the Conference
The conference will attempt to address the ethical aspects surrounding the design and implementation of robots. Questions of considerable interest are: understanding the complexity of the task for which the robot will be used; understanding the complexity involved with programming; understanding the real world state of the art in robotics and the challenges it faces; and, understanding where ethics comes into play and why it ought to be incorporated further upstream in the design process.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
1. The main ethical and technical obstacles facing roboticists today (from the perspective of ethicists and engineers respectively)
2. Values and robot design (how are values implicated in design and how might values be embedded in design)
3. Short term impacts of robots on users (from both an engineers perspective and an ethicists/philosopher’s perspective)
4. Long term (soft) impacts of robots on society (from both an engineers perspective and an ethicists/philosopher’s perspective)
5. How to include ethics in the design (process) of robots?
6. Ethics of robots in particular fields: health care and elderly care, military robotics, social robotics
Broader philosophical topics include:
7. Moral status of robots
8. Robots and philosophical anthropology
9. Ethics of robotics from an intercultural perspective
References
Asaro, P. (2006). What Should We Want from a Robot Ethic?, in Rafael Capurro and Michael Nagenborg (eds.) Ethics and Robotics, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: IOS Press.
Engelberger J. (1989) Robotics in Service. MIT Press.
Van Gorp A and Van de Poel I. (2008) Deciding on ethical Issues in Engineering. In Philosophy and Design: from engineering to architecture. Vermaas P, Kroes P, Light A, Moore S (Eds), Springer, pgs 77-104.
Verbeek P. (2008) Morality in Design; design ethics and the morality of technological artifacts. In Philosophy and Design: from engineering to architecture. Vermaas P, Kroes P, Light A, Moore S (Eds), Springer, pgs 91-102.
- Wendell Wallach (Yale University)
- Noel Sharkey (University of Sheffield)
- John Sullins (Sonoma State University)
- Peter Asaro (The New School, New York)
- Amanda Sharkey (University of Sheffield)
The conference invites papers from the many fields involved in robotics research: computer scientists, engineers and designers as well as ethicists, philosophers, anthropologists and social scientists. Each paper/presentation must clearly indicate the relevance of the topic in both the field of research of the author as well as its relevance on a broader scale (ie. for another robotic’s discipline). Abstracts of 500 words can be submitted by May 15th via email to and notification will be sent out by June 1.
The conference will be held at the Drienerburght hotel on the University of Twente campus in Enschede, the Netherlands; http://www.drienerburght.nl/ . July 11 and 12th, 2011.
Conference fees: 100 Euro regular, 65 Euro students.
For overview of the conference, please click here.
For registration, please click here.
For queries please send an email to
This conference is co-organized by Aimee van Wynsberghe, http://www.utwente.nl/gw/wijsb/organization/wynsberghe/ and Dr. Mark Coeckelbergh http://www.utwente.nl/gw/wijsb/organization/coeckelbergh/ of the University of Twente.
For any questions about the conference please email Aimee van Wynsberghe at:
Please click here to download the updated program.
If you travel by car:
Schiphol boulevard (Airport) - Drienerlolaan 5
Düsseldorf (Airport) - Drienerlolaan 5
Munster/Osnabruck (Airport) - Drienerlolaan 5
http://maps.google.nl/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=201049252139915634665.0004a5702800f2552d708&ll=52.185721,7.271576&spn=0.511919,1.139832&t=h&z=10
There will be a road construction near the campus, at the Hengelosestraat, during the time of the congress so the last part of the route is not convenient if you are traveling by car.
If you travel with public transport:
This website will provide all sorts of public transport information within the Netherlands. Just fill in the place you are starting your journey and where you want to go. (The conference will be held at Drienerlolaan 5, Enschede)
http://journeyplanner.9292.nl/
See http://www.utwente.nl/contact/routeeng for more general route information and a map of the campus.
3TU.Centre for Ethics and Technology (3TU.Ethics)
and
Centre for Telematics and Information Technology (CTIT) of the University of Twente (SRO Interaction)
