EthicBots – Emerging Technoethics of Human Interaction with Communication, Bionic and Robotic Systems

Project financed by: European Commission – “Structuring the European Research” Area FP6-SOCIETY

Project number: 017759 SAS 6

Project duration: 30 months

Start date: 01/09/2005

End date: 30/04/2008

EthicBots – Emerging Technoethics of Human Interaction with Communication, Bionic and Robotic Systems

ETHICBOTS (Emerging Technoethics of Human Interaction with Communication, Bionic and Robotic) is a “Coordination Action” project funded by the European Commission (“Structuring the European Research Area”, Contract N. 017759 SAS 6 ) with 9 partners out of 5 countries. The lead partner was the University of Naples Federico II. It started on 1 November 2005 and ended on 30 April 2008.

The objectives of the project were to promote and coordinate an interdisciplinary group of researchers in Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Anthropology, Moral Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, with the common aim of analyzing and identifying the techno-ethical problems concerning the interaction and integration of human beings and artificial entities (software/hardware).

The main ethical considerations in these areas include the preservation of human identity and integrity; the application of precautionary principles; economic and social discrimination; autonomous and reliable artificial systems; responsibility for war applications; nature and impact of cognitive machines and effective guarantees for individuals and society.

In addition, the proposed path aims to disseminate the ability of researchers to communicate in a comprehensible way with journalists, politicians, people involved, and the wider public of non-experts with a view to shifting the focus from limitation to encouraging, guiding and promoting responsible scientific and technological research.

School of Robotics was responsible for WP5, Dissemination.

PROJECT PARTNERS

University of Naples Federico II (Italy) – Coordinator
Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung zur Angewandten Forschung E.V. (Germany)
Scuola di Robotica (Italy)
Lugano Institute of Technology (Switzerland)
The University of Reading (United Kingdom)
Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart (Germany)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – CNRS (France)
Sant’Anna High School of University and Postgraduate Studies Sant’Anna (Italy)
Middlesex University (United Kingdom)
University of Pisa (Italy)