Virtue Ethics for Ethically Tunable Robotic Assistants

Rajitha Ramanayake, Vivek Nallur

Abstract: The common consensus is that robots designed to work alongside or serve humans must adhere to the ethical standards of their operational environment. To achieve this, several methods based on established ethical theories have been suggested. Nonetheless, numerous empirical studies show that the ethical requirements of the real world are very diverse and can change rapidly from region to region. This eliminates the idea of a universal set of ethics that can fit into any ethical context. However, creating customised robots for each deployment, using existing techniques is challenging. The paper suggests a method of character-based tuning of robots, inspired by virtue ethics, to meet the distinct ethical requirements of any given environment. Using a simulated elder-care environment, this paper illustrates how this approach can be used to change the behaviour of a robot that interacts with an elderly resident in an ambient-assisted environment. Further, it assesses the robot’s responses to a set of ethically charged scenarios by consulting ethicists to identify potential shortcomings.

External IDs:doi:10.1007/978-3-031-93930-3_18