Roboethics(Robot Ethics) Info Database

Can robots know the difference between right and wrong?

AJung — Tue, 03 May 2011 22:41:32 +0000

Whenever I introduce people to roboethics, people can't help but ask me "Is robotics technology really advanced enough for us to even worry about ethical issues surrounding them?". I think this BBC report (forwarded to me via my labmate Tom Huryn) does a great job of connecting what's out there already, and how roboethics is indeed a relevant topic of discussion today (rather than something sci-fi-esque for a distant future).

Geminoid Summit

AJung — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:49:26 +0000

According to IEEE Spectrum’s automation blog, three geminoids met in Japan at the ATR laboratory on March 30th. What are geminoids? They are telepresence robots that take the form of an android (human looking robot). You can probably tell that the people standing are the real humans, and the rest are the geminoids. The geminoids are Geminoid F, Geminoid HI-1, and Geminoid DK, whose originals are the lady on the left (whose identity we don’t know too much about), Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University, and Prof. Henrik Scharfe of Aalborg University, in Denmark respectively. Prof. ...

CFP – Bridging the robotics gap: bringing together ethicists and engineers

AJung — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 03:30:20 +0000

If you are a roboethicist, then you probably want to be in the Netherlands this summer, and here is why: The University of Twente sent out a Call for Papers for a conference on the topic of “Bridging the robotics gap: bringing together ethicists and engineers”. Taking place in Enschede, the Netherlands, where the university is located, the organizers are looking for 500 word abstract submissions by May 15th. The conference itself will be two days long: July 11th – 12th. One thing that I am really excited about the conference is that ...

ICRA 2011 – The 4th Workshop on Roboethics

AJung — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:58:47 +0000

Every odd year is an exciting year. That’s because one of the largest robotics conferences, ICRA (a.k.a. International Conference on Robotics and Automation), hosts a full-day workshop on roboethics. I am happy to announce that 2011 is not an exception. The Fourth Workshop on Roboethics will be held in Shanghi, China on May 13, 2011. Please see below and the following website for more info: Roboethics.org ====================================================================== Fourth Workshop on Roboethics May 13, 2011 CALL FOR PAPERS Important dates: • February 28, 2011: Paper submission deadline • March 7, 2011: Notification of Acceptance/Rejection • March 14, 2011: Camera-Ready Submission Deadline Organizers: IEEE ...

Roboethics 2010 Timeline

AJung — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:18:07 +0000

It’s mid-February 2011 already, and the year 2010 is well tucked away in the past. But February is not too late for a post on 2010, I think. I worked on this timeline of roboethics events 2010 over the holidays, and have made it accessible for you below. I could’ve been more detailed about it the events included here, and I could have mentioned more of the key events from the robotics industry as well. But I figured that there’s enough articles on the web about the top 20 robot videos of 2010, ...

Happy Holidays from RoboethicsDB.com

AJung — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 20:13:36 +0000

Happy holidays everyone! With your help, RoboethicsDB.com has met at least 32,000 unique visitors this year (according to the hosting service). Thank you so much for your continued support, and the happiest of wishes for the new year goes to you! AJung PS. Coming up next: blogpost(s) on the key Roboethics events of 2010!

Is robotics (and robotic surgery) just a big hype?

AJung — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 07:46:15 +0000

Is robotics all just a big hype? I would like to say yes, and no. This is a temporary recycle of an older post I wrote last December covering a topic I wanted to discuss at last night's Cafe Scientifique. How is medical robotics affecting the society? A discussion of cost vs. benefits, how more people are choosing robotic surgeries, and how some are more disappointed afterwards.

the Andersons and the Ethical Robot

AJung — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 07:52:47 +0000

For those of you who don’t know the Andersons in the roboethics world, please meet them via the video here. Susan Anderson and Michael Anderson are a philosopher and a computer scientist (yes, they’re a couple) who has been working together to promote ethics using AI approach for years – they’ve been involved in the field of machine ethics which is a broader field than roboethics. Susan Anderson is a professor at the University of Conneticut and Michael Anderson is an associate professor at the University of Hartford. Just by skimming ...

Small Steps for Robots to Giant Leap for Robotkind?

AJung — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 04:45:35 +0000

I found a very good coverage on robots and issues involved with the current state of the art technology. PBS NewsHour’s correspondent Miles O’Brien reports: The full transcript of the coverage is available here.

Man vs. Machine – A Bowling Match…

AJung — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 17:36:24 +0000

We, the homo-sapiens, constantly seek challenges and wow the world. Yuna Kim’s perfect figure skating performance at the Vancouver Winter Olympics (2010) would be my favorite example of this, but then again, we met the challenge of sending men to the Moon, and also fly thousands of people (who don’t have wings hidden in their backs) across the oceans everyday. But it seems to me that we’re increasingly competing with machines these days, and somehow proving that perfectness achieved by machines aren’t really perfect enough in real life – because humans can do ...