Military Robots And Drones

Military Robots and the Question of Responsibility

Human Rights and Ethics ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-6433-3.ch114 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 2068-2082

Author(s):

Lambèr Royakkers ◽

Peter Olsthoorn

Keyword(s):

Causal Chain ◽

Unmanned Systems ◽

Attribution Of Responsibility ◽

Computer Screen ◽

Military Robots ◽

Human Operators

Most unmanned systems used in operations today are unarmed and mainly used for reconnaissance and mine clearing, yet the increase of the number of armed military robots is undeniable. The use of these robots raises some serious ethical questions. For instance: who can be held morally responsible in reason when a military robot is involved in an act of violence that would normally be described as a war crime? In this article, The authors critically assess the attribution of responsibility with respect to the deployment of both non-autonomous and non-learning autonomous lethal military robots. The authors will start by looking at the role of those with whom responsibility normally lies, the commanders. The authors argue that this is no different in the case of the above mentioned robots. After that, we will turn to those at the beginning and the end of the causal chain, respectively the manufacturers and designers, and the human operators who remotely control armed military robots from behind a computer screen.

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Thanatology and Human Factors

Critical Issues Impacting Science, Technology, Society (STS), and Our Future - Advances in Human and Social Aspects of Technology ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-7949-6.ch011 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 251-280

Author(s):

Alexis R. Neigel ◽

Gabriella M. Hancock

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Human Factors ◽

End Of Life ◽

Design Process ◽

21St Century ◽

Life Domain ◽

Life And Death ◽

Military Robots ◽

Pain And Suffering

The chapter discusses the ergonomic and human factors issues surrounding life and death in terms of 21st century design. In this chapter, the authors describe how current limitations in technologies that are specifically designed to be lethal afford greater pain and suffering than necessary. As human factors is a science dedicated to improving the quality of life, it is necessary to critically examine the end-of-life domain, which is an area of research that has been largely neglected by ergonomic practitioners. By providing an overview of the current research in several area including euthanasia, remotely executed lethal operations, and fully autonomous military robots, the authors demonstrate the need to consider morality and ethics in the design process.

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Safer and Faster Humanitarian Demining with Robots

Service Robots and Robotics ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-0291-5.ch010 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 176-190

Author(s):

Emin Faruk Kececi

Keyword(s):

Ease Of Use ◽

Design Criteria ◽

Task Space ◽

Research Results ◽

Advisory System ◽

Humanitarian Demining ◽

Military Robots ◽

The Future ◽

Explosive Ordnance Disposal

The need to clean almost 1 million landmines on the Turkish border poses a great challenge to the Turkish military, both as a safety and a feasibility issue. In order to achieve this task, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) robot has been designed and a prototype has been manufactured. The robot has the capability of working in task space. The uniqueness of this research is that the design criteria and the prototype procedure is explained in detail. After the testing of the prototype, the research results are concluded—which functions the future EOD robots should have and how these functions can improve the performance and ease of use of this type of military robots. Autonomy, use of an advisory system, and automatic camera manipulation can improve the future EOD robots dramatically.

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Moral Emotions for Autonomous Agents

Machine Learning ◽

10.4018/978-1-60960-818-7.ch704 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 1753-1766

Author(s):

Antoni Gomila ◽

Alberto Amengual

Keyword(s):

Autonomous Agents ◽

Moral Emotions ◽

Cognitive System ◽

The Self ◽

Moral Autonomy ◽

Cognitive Systems ◽

Hybrid Architecture ◽

Current Development ◽

Moral Issues ◽

Military Robots

In this chapter we raise some of the moral issues involved in the current development of robotic autonomous agents. Starting from the connection between autonomy and responsibility, we distinguish two sorts of problems: those having to do with guaranteeing that the behavior of the artificial cognitive system is going to fall within the area of the permissible, and those having to do with endowing such systems with whatever abilities are required for engaging in moral interaction. Only in the second case can we speak of full blown autonomy, or moral autonomy. We illustrate the first type of case with Arkin’s proposal of a hybrid architecture for control of military robots. As for the second kind of case, that of full-blown autonomy, we argue that a motivational component is needed, to ground the self-orientation and the pattern of appraisal required, and outline how such motivational component might give rise to interaction in terms of moral emotions. We end suggesting limits to a straightforward analogy between natural and artificial cognitive systems from this standpoint.

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