Towards Industrial Robots with Human Like Moral Responsibilities Baran Çürüklü, Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic, Batu Akan School of Innovation, Design and Engineering Mälardalen University Västerås, Sweden {baran.curuklu, gordana.dodig-crnkovic, batu.akan}@mdh.se Abstract—Robots do not have any capability of taking moral responsibility. At the same time industrial robotics is entering a new era with “intelligent” robots sharing workbench with humans. Teams consisting of humans and industrial robots are no longer science fiction. The biggest worry in this scenario is the fear of humans losing control and robots running amok. We believe that the current way of implementing safety measures have shortcomings, and cannot address challenges related to close collaboration between humans and robots. We propose that “intelligent” industrial robots of the future should have moral responsibilities towards their human colleagues. We also propose that implementation of moral responsibility is radically different from standard safety measures. Human-robot interaction; industrial robots; ethics; moral responsibilities; safety; I. INTRODUCTION A. Industrial robotics is about to enter a new era In a near future, robots are going to share workbench with humans, they even will work on the same piece together with them. Thus, the role of industrial robots is changing; from being a tool used in manufacturing, to a colleague that engineers and technicians can interact with. This is a different form of collaboration that goes beyond today’s human-robot interaction. As a result, next generation industrial robots need to be designed in a fundamentally different way. Furthermore, we need to address challenges with respect to safety from a new perspective. Physical obstacles in various forms such as padding on the robot, high fences (passive safety), or sensors for human detection (active safety), are of no use (Fig. 1). In the near future, we need robots that are aware of their environments and act similar to their fellow human colleagues, thus have moral responsibilities. This change in the mindset in industrial robotics is due to a number of trends. Firstly, industrial robots are precision instruments that are costly to develop and manufacture. At the same time they are considered to be low production products. On top of this we have reach a situation in which it is getting harder to distinguish robots from different manufacturers. They all look the same; they all perform the same. Thus, increased competition among robot manufacturers forces the industry to design radically new products. Secondly, until now the automobile industry has been the main market of the industrial Figure 1. Collaboration between a human and an industrial robot challenges current safety norms. Pictures are from 2009 Scandinavial Technical Fair (top picture is by Peter Nerell). robots, with welding as the dominant task for a robot. Increased competitiveness in this business area is forcing robot manufacturers to find other customer groups. Many of these new potential customers, we refer to them as Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), are in need of other types of robots than those found in an automobile plant. Usually SMEs do not have expert robot programmers. They also consider industrial robots as being too advanced, and expensive to purchase, maintain and reprogram for a new task. Lastly, technological advancement especially in sensors, electronics, and computers systems makes it possible to design radically different industrial robots. This should not come as a surprise. Today there are a number of highly advanced entertainment robots that are able to interact with humans. It is only a matter This project is funded by Robotdalen, VINNOVA, Sparbanksstiftelsen Nya, EU – European Regional Development Fund.