Legal and regulatory challenges for physical assistant robots

Abstract

This study pioneers the identification and examination of concrete legal and ethical issues concerning a sub-type of Personal Care Robots (PCR): Physical Assistant Robots (PAR). PCR are the core of the progress of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and are likely to be introduced in many Healthcare facilities very soon. Nonetheless, appropriate and specific legal regulations regarding PAR are missing and several problems need to be carefully considered: from technical issues, e.g. cloud robotics and security; to legal problems, e.g. privacy, liability, user rights, etc.; to ethical ones, e.g. user acceptance, dependence on the device, etc. Despite the recent advances, there is still a long way ahead and further research is needed to overcome such problems. This is the first version of a regulatory (law and ethics) framework for PAR more concrete and useful than current legal and ethical general principles, which includes its contents and challenges.