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View article: Correction: Understanding consumer attitudes towards second-hand robots for the home
Correction: Understanding consumer attitudes towards second-hand robots for the home Open
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2024.1324519.].
View article: On the ethical governance of swarm robotic systems in the real world
On the ethical governance of swarm robotic systems in the real world Open
In this paper, we address the question: what practices would be required for the responsible design and operation of real-world swarm robotic systems? We argue that swarm robotic systems must be developed and operated within a framework of…
View article: A Simulated real-world upper-body Exoskeleton Accident and Investigation
A Simulated real-world upper-body Exoskeleton Accident and Investigation Open
This paper describes the enactment of a simulated (mock) accident involving an upper-body exoskeleton and its investigation. The accident scenario is enacted by role-playing volunteers, one of whom is wearing the exoskeleton. Following the…
View article: Evolutionary robotics as a modelling tool in evolutionary biology
Evolutionary robotics as a modelling tool in evolutionary biology Open
The use of evolutionary robotic systems to model aspects of evolutionary biology is well-established. Yet, few studies have asked the question, “What kind of model is an evolutionary robotic system?” This paper seeks to address that questi…
View article: Towards a Unified Framework for Software-Hardware Integration in Evolutionary Robotics
Towards a Unified Framework for Software-Hardware Integration in Evolutionary Robotics Open
The discrepancy between simulated and hardware experiments, the reality gap, is a challenge in evolutionary robotics. While strategies have been proposed to address this gap in fixed-body robots, they are not viable when dealing with popul…
View article: Understanding consumer attitudes towards second-hand robots for the home
Understanding consumer attitudes towards second-hand robots for the home Open
As robot numbers in the home increase, creating a market for second-hand robotic systems is essential to reduce the waste impact of the industry. Via a survey, consumer attitudes of United Kingdom participants towards second-hand robots we…
View article: Human involvement in autonomous decision-making systems. Lessons learned from three case studies in aviation, social care and road vehicles
Human involvement in autonomous decision-making systems. Lessons learned from three case studies in aviation, social care and road vehicles Open
This paper draws on three case studies to examine some of the challenges and tensions involved in the use of Autonomous Decision-Making Systems (ADMS). In particular, the paper highlights: (i) challenges around the shifting “locale” of the…
View article: Evaluation of Frameworks That Combine Evolution and Learning to Design Robots in Complex Morphological Spaces
Evaluation of Frameworks That Combine Evolution and Learning to Design Robots in Complex Morphological Spaces Open
Jointly optimising both the body and brain of a robot is known to be a challenging task, especially when attempting to evolve designs in simulation that will subsequently be built in the real world. To address this, it is increasingly comm…
View article: Variable Autonomy through Responsible Robotics: Design Guidelines and Research Agenda
Variable Autonomy through Responsible Robotics: Design Guidelines and Research Agenda Open
Physically embodied artificial agents, or robots, are being incorporated into various practical and social contexts, from self-driving cars for personal transportation to assistive robotics in social care. To enable these systems to better…
View article: On the relationship between Benchmarking, Standards and Certification in Robotics and AI
On the relationship between Benchmarking, Standards and Certification in Robotics and AI Open
Benchmarking, standards and certification are closely related processes. Standards can provide normative requirements that robotics and AI systems may or may not conform to. Certification generally relies upon conformance with one or more …
View article: Practical hardware for evolvable robots
Practical hardware for evolvable robots Open
The evolutionary robotics field offers the possibility of autonomously generating robots that are adapted to desired tasks by iteratively optimising across successive generations of robots with varying configurations until a high-performin…
View article: An ethical black box for social robots: A draft open standard
An ethical black box for social robots: A draft open standard Open
This paper introduces a draft open standard for the robot equivalent of an aircraft flight data recorder, which we call an ethical black box.This is a device, or software module, capable of securely recording operational data (sensor, actu…
View article: An Ethical Black Box for Social Robots: a draft Open Standard
An Ethical Black Box for Social Robots: a draft Open Standard Open
This paper introduces a draft open standard for the robot equivalent of an aircraft flight data recorder, which we call an ethical black box. This is a device, or software module, capable of securely recording operational data (sensor, act…
View article: Morpho Evolution With Learning Using a Controller Archive as an Inheritance Mechanism
Morpho Evolution With Learning Using a Controller Archive as an Inheritance Mechanism Open
Most work in evolutionary robotics centres on evolving a controller for a fixed body-plan. However, previous studiessuggest that simultaneously evolving both controller and body-plan could open up many interesting possibilities. However, t…
View article: Experiments in artificial culture: from noisy imitation to storytelling robots
Experiments in artificial culture: from noisy imitation to storytelling robots Open
This paper presents a series of experiments in collective social robotics, spanning more than 10 years, with the long-term aim of building embodied models of (aspects of) cultural evolution. Initial experiments demonstrated the emergence o…
View article: A New Perspective on Robot Ethics through Investigating Human–Robot Interactions with Older Adults
A New Perspective on Robot Ethics through Investigating Human–Robot Interactions with Older Adults Open
This work explored the use of human–robot interaction research to investigate robot ethics. A longitudinal human–robot interaction study was conducted with self-reported healthy older adults to determine whether expression of artificial em…
View article: Experiments in artificial culture: from noisy imitation to storytelling robots
Experiments in artificial culture: from noisy imitation to storytelling robots Open
This paper presents a series of experiments in collective social robotics, spanning more than 10 years, with the long-term aim of building embodied models of (aspects) of cultural evolution. Initial experiments demonstrated the emergence o…
View article: IEEE P7001: A Proposed Standard on Transparency
IEEE P7001: A Proposed Standard on Transparency Open
This paper describes IEEE P7001, a new draft standard on transparency of autonomous systems 1 . In the paper, we outline the development and structure of the draft standard. We present the rationale for transparency as a measurable, testab…
View article: Role-Play as Responsible Robotics: The Virtual Witness Testimony Role-Play Interview for Investigating Hazardous Human-Robot Interactions
Role-Play as Responsible Robotics: The Virtual Witness Testimony Role-Play Interview for Investigating Hazardous Human-Robot Interactions Open
The development of responsible robotics requires paying attention to responsibility within the research process in addition to responsibility as the outcome of research. This paper describes the preparation and application of a novel metho…
View article: Experiments in Artificial Culture: from noisy imitation to storytelling robots
Experiments in Artificial Culture: from noisy imitation to storytelling robots Open
This paper presents a series of experiments in collective social robotics, spanning more than 10 years, with the long-term aim of building embodied models of (aspects) of cultural evolution. Initial experiments demonstrated the emergence o…
View article: Negative updating applied to the best-of-n problem with noisy qualities
Negative updating applied to the best-of-n problem with noisy qualities Open
The ability to perform well in the presence of noise is an important consideration when evaluating the effectiveness of a collective decision-making framework. Any system deployed for real-world applications will have to perform well in co…
View article: Morpho-evolution with learning using a controller archive as an inheritance mechanism
Morpho-evolution with learning using a controller archive as an inheritance mechanism Open
The joint optimisation of body-plan and control via evolutionary processes can be challenging in rich morphological spaces in which offspring can have body-plans that are very different from either of their parents. This causes a potential…
View article: Towards Autonomous Robot Evolution
Towards Autonomous Robot Evolution Open
We outline a perspective on the future of evolutionary robotics and discuss a long-term vision regarding robots that evolve in the real world. We argue that such systems offer significant potential for advancing both science and engineerin…
View article: Bootstrapping Artificial Evolution to Design Robots for Autonomous Fabrication
Bootstrapping Artificial Evolution to Design Robots for Autonomous Fabrication Open
A long-term vision of evolutionary robotics is a technology enabling the evolution of entire autonomous robotic ecosystems that live and work for long periods in challenging and dynamic environments without the need for direct human oversi…
View article: Hardware Design for Autonomous Robot Evolution
Hardware Design for Autonomous Robot Evolution Open
The long term goal of the Autonomous Robot Evolution (ARE) project is to create populations of physical robots, in which both the controllers and body plans are evolved. The transition for evolutionary designs from purely simulation enviro…
View article: Evolution of Diverse, Manufacturable Robot Body Plans
Evolution of Diverse, Manufacturable Robot Body Plans Open
Advances in rapid prototyping have opened up new avenues of research within Evolutionary Robotics in which not only controllers but also the body plans (morphologies) of robots can evolve in real-time and real-space. However, this also int…
View article: ELSA in Industrial Robotics
ELSA in Industrial Robotics Open
Purpose of Review Industry is changing; converging technologies allow a fourth Industrial Revolution, where it is envisaged that robots will work alongside humans. We investigate how the research community is responding to the ethical, leg…
View article: RoboTed: a case study in Ethical Risk Assessment
RoboTed: a case study in Ethical Risk Assessment Open
Risk Assessment is a well known and powerful method for discovering and mitigating risks, and hence improving safety. Ethical Risk Assessment uses the same approach but extends the envelope of risk to cover ethical risks in addition to saf…
View article: Robot Accident Investigation: a case study in Responsible Robotics
Robot Accident Investigation: a case study in Responsible Robotics Open
Robot accidents are inevitable. Although rare, they have been happening since assembly-line robots were first introduced in the 1960s. But a new generation of social robots are now becoming commonplace. Often with sophisticated embedded ar…