Roboethics as a Research Puzzle

Abstract

This position paper discusses the question of incorporating roboethics into the roboticists' thinking about their research. On the one hand, there has been a growing recognition of the need to develop and advance the field of roboethics. On the other hand, for different reasons, a large part of the robotics community has still been reluctant to explicitly address ethical considerations in robotics research. We argue here that in order to facilitate and foster ethical reflection in roboticists' work, roboethics should be seen as a research puzzle. This implies studying rather than only applying specific ethical principles, as well as taking highly creative and pioneering approaches towards emerging ethical challenges.