MELI 2014 - Moral, Ethical, and Legal Issues in Robotics

The widespread use of robotic systems outside the controlled environments in which they have traditionally been found ? from autonomous cars on public roads, to drones in the US airspace, to in-home service robots ? generates a wide array of moral, ethical, and legal issues that robotics researchers have not had to deal with in the past. For example:
What are the privacy implications of pervasive robotics? What happens when society is filled with mobile sensor platforms that can affect their environment?
What are the liability and other legal issues surrounding autonomous systems? Who is responsible when a robot manufactured by company A, running software developed by developer B, owned by person C, and operating at the behest of person D, causes an accident?
What are the ethical and moral issues surrounding pervasive robotics? What happens when robots can prevent some accidents a human couldn't avoid, but not all? How should a robot faced with an emminent accident decide how to minimize damage (and is this even an issue given existing technology)? And most importantly:
Why should robotics researchers even care?
The purpose of this workshop is to attempt to bring roboticists, lawyers, ethicists, and philosophers to the same table in order to generate discussion about these sorts of issues. By doing so we hope each side can help educate the other: lawyers and ethicists can explain to roboticists what the important legal and ethical issues of robotics research are (and why they should care), and roboticists can help lawyers and ethicists understand the technical details and limitations of robotics research (and which issues are actually important, given the current level of technology). This workshop will include a large amount of time dedicated to Q&A and discussion, so if you are interested in learning more about the ethical and legal side of robotics, we invite you to attend!