The topic of roboethics in the industrial domain was addressed by HFC in association with the Institute of Philosophy at the Technical University of Berlin for the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) in a nine-month-project.
The objective of the project was to identify socio-ethical aspects of human-robot-interaction that are especially relevant in the industrial domain. Following several theoretical analyses, three essential variables were identified that impact emotional aspects, the perceived responsibility, and the user acceptance in the industrial HRI: the hierarchical role of robot and human in the interaction, level of robot autonomy, and robot morphology in terms of shape, context, communication, and motion. The results form the basis of socio-ethical design guidelines for industrial HRI.
On june 24th, HFC participated at the Berlin / Brandenburg “Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften” presenting this project and having enthusiastic discussions at an invited panel session on roboethics.