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This volume explores the ethical questions that arise in the development, creation and use of robots that are capable of semiautonomous or autonomous decision making and human-like action. It examines how ethical and moral theories can and must be applied to address the complex and critical issues of the application of these intelligent robots in society.
Coverage first presents fundamental concepts and provides a general overview of ethics, artificial intelligence and robotics. Next, the book studies all principal ethical applications of robots, namely medical, assistive, socialized and war roboethics. It looks at such issues as robotic surgery, children-robot and elderly-robot therapeutical/social interactions and the use of robots, especially autonomous lethal ones, in warfare. In addition, a chapter also considers Japanese roboethics as well as key intercultural and robot legislation issues.
Overall, readers are provided with a thorough investigation into the moralresponsibility (if any) of autonomous robots when doing harm. This volume will serve as an ideal educational source in engineering and robotics courses as well as an introductory reference for researchers in the field.
List of contents
1. Introductory Concepts and Outline of the Book.- 2. Ethics: Fundamental Elements.- 3. Artificial Intelligence.- 4. The World of Robots.- 5. Roboethics: A Branch of Applied Ethics.- 6. Medical Roboethics.- 7. Assistive Roboethics.- 8. Socialized Roboethics.- 9. War Roboethics.- 10. Japanese roboethics, Intercultural and Legislation Issues.- 11. Additional Roboethics Issues.- 12. Mental Robots.
About the author
Spyros G. Tzafestas received the B.Sc. in Physics (1963) and Graduate Diploma in Electronics (1965) from Athens University, Diploma of Electrical Engineering, from Imperial College (1967), M.Sc. (Eng.) in Control from London University (1967) and Ph.D. in Systems and Control from Southampton University, England (1969). From 1969 to 1973 he was Research Leader at the Computer Science Division of the Nuclear Research Center "Demokritos", Athens. From 1973 to 1984 he was Professor of Automatic Control at the University of Patras, and from 1985 to 2006 he was Professor of Control and Robotics at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece. Temporary visiting teaching and / or research positions include : University of Calabria, Italy (1985, 1987), University of Delft, The Netherlands (1991) and MIT, USA (1992). He is currently Director of the Institute of Communication and Control Systems, and as a Professor Emeritus he is leading the Intelligent Automation Systems Research Group engaged with research carried out in ICCS-NTUA mainly in the framework of national and European projects.
Dr Tzafestas is the Recipient of D.Sc. of Southampton University (1978), and Honorary Doctorates of the Technical University of Munich (Dr.-Ing. E.h., 1997) and the Ecole Centrale de Lille (Dr. Ing.-Honoris Causa, 2003). He has published 30 edited research books, 60 book chapters and over 700 Journal and Conference technical papers in the field of control, robotics and Intelligent Systems. He has been the coordinator of national and EU projects in the fields of IT, Intelligent systems, robotics, control and CIM. He is an associate editor of 15 Journals, and he was the Editor - in - Chief of the Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems (1988-2006) and of the Book Series "Micro processor - Based and Intelligent Systems Engineering, Kluwer (1993-2006). Presently, he is the Editor of the Springer book series on Intelligent Control and Automation Systems.
He is a Fellow of IEE, now IET (London), a Life Fellow of IEEE (New York) and a Member of ASME, NYAS and the Hellenic Technical Chamber (TEE). He received the Greek Society of Writers' Award and the Ktesibios Award from the IEEE Mediterranean Control Association (2001). Dr Tzafestas has over the years organized and / or chaired several international conferences (IEEE, IMACS, SIRES, IASTED, EUCA).
Summary
This volume explores the ethical questions that arise in the development, creation and use of robots that are capable of semiautonomous or autonomous decision making and human-like action. It examines how ethical and moral theories can and must be applied to address the complex and critical issues of the application of these intelligent robots in society.
Coverage first presents fundamental concepts and provides a general overview of ethics, artificial intelligence and robotics. Next, the book studies all principal ethical applications of robots, namely medical, assistive, socialized and war roboethics. It looks at such issues as robotic surgery, children-robot and elderly-robot therapeutical/social interactions and the use of robots, especially autonomous lethal ones, in warfare. In addition, a chapter also considers Japanese roboethics as well as key intercultural and robot legislation issues.
Overall, readers are provided with a thorough investigation into the moralresponsibility (if any) of autonomous robots when doing harm. This volume will serve as an ideal educational source in engineering and robotics courses as well as an introductory reference for researchers in the field.
Report
"This book presents a remarkably complete and concise approach to the field of robot ethics. The book covers a wide range of topics, from both the engineering and philosophical points of view. ... This book is complete enough to make it suitable as a textbook (with additional references) for a standalone course on robot ethics, or as a supplementary text for a course in robotics." (G. A. Bekey, Computing Reviews, November, 2015)
