Author: Oliver Bendel

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A CARE-MOMO for Lio

The discipline of machine ethics examines, designs, and produces moral machines. The artificial morality (aka machine morality) is usually pre-programmed by a producer or developer. However, another approach is the more flexible morality menu (MOME), an invention by Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel. With this, owners or users replicate their own moral preferences and convictions onto a machine. A team at the School of Business FHNW implemented a MOME for MOBO (a certain chatbot) in 2019/2020. This project was continued in 2022. Marc Heimann developed a morality menu under the supervision of Oliver Bendel, which is part of a morality module (MOMO) for a care robot like Lio from F&P Robotics. The principle is the same as for the MOBO-MOME. With sliders, the patient can determine the behavior of the robot. This supports his or her personal autonomy and ensures his or her well-being. The results of the CARE-MOMO project will be presented to the company F&P Robotics, which accompanied the project, in October 2022.

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Talk about Robots in Policing in Helsinki

On the first day of Robophilosophy 2022, Oliver Bendel presented his paper “Robots in Policing“. From the abstract: “This article is devoted to the question of how robots are used in policing and what opportunities and risks arise in social terms. It begins by briefly explaining the characteristics of modern police work. It puts service robots and social robots in relation to each other and outlines relevant disciplines. The article also lists types of robots that are and could be relevant in the present context. It then gives examples from different countries of the use of robots in police work and security services. From these, it derives the central tasks of robots in this area and their most important technical features. A discussion from social, ethical, and technical perspectives seeks to provide clarity on how robots are changing the police as a social institution and with social actions and relationships, and what challenges need to be addressed.” Robots in policing are a topic that has yet to receive much attention. However, it is likely to become considerably more topical in the next few years. More information about the conference on cas.au.dk/en/robophilosophy/conferences/rpc2022.

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Tamagotchi on Our Couch

On the first day (August 16, 2022) of the Robophilosophy conference, Katharina Kühne (University of Potsdam) presented a poster on a project she had carried out together with Melinda A. Jeglinski-Mende from the same university. Oliver Bendel (School of Business FHNW) was also involved in the margins. The paper is titled “Tamagotchi on our couch: Are social robots perceived as pets?”. The abstract states: “Although social robots increasingly enter our lives, it is not clear how they are perceived. Previous research indicates that there is a tendency to anthropomorphize social robots, at least in the Western culture. One of the most promising roles of robots in our society is companionship. Pets also fulfill this role, which gives their owners health and wellbeing benefits. In our study, we investigated if social robots can implicitly and explicitly be perceived as pets. In an online experiment, we measured implicit associations between pets and robots using pictures of robots and devices, as well as attributes denoting pet and non-pet features, in a Go/No-Go Association Task (GNAT). Further, we asked our participants to explicitly evaluate to what extent they perceive robots as pets and if robots could replace a real pet. Our findings show that implicitly, but not explicitly, social robots are perceived as pets.” (Abstract) The poster is available here.

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The Uncanny Robot CyberOne

Xiaomi – a Chinese manufacturer of consumer electronics – introduced CyberOne in August 2022. It is a humanoid social robot. It has a head, but no face, and for that reason alone it looks creepy. The company writes on its website: “As the newest member of Xiaomi’s Cyber series, joining last year’s quadruped robot Cyberdog, CyberOne is fitted with advanced arms and legs, supports bipedal-motion posture balancing, and reaches a peak torque of up to 300Nm. Also demonstrated was the ability to detect human emotion, advanced vision capabilities, and functionality allowing it to create three-dimensional virtual reconstructions of the real world, alongside a host of other advanced technologies.” (Xiaomi, August 11, 2022) Via www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJhneBJIfOk you can watch a video with CyberOne. Overall, the demonstration seems unconvincing. The missing face has already been mentioned. The robot makes sounds that are more appropriate for a small toy and entertainment robot. In addition, it moves stiffly and slowly. You can say that the list of uncanny robots has been expanded with CyberOne. Maybe the company can improve the prototype and make it more compelling.

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AI Ethics and Animals

The impact of robotics and artificial intelligence on non-human animals has been researched by Oliver Bendel for several years. He has made it his task to complement the discipline of animal-computer interaction, which was founded by Clara Mancini, with the discipline of animal-machine interaction. His most recent paper is “Passive, Active, and Proactive Systems and Machines for the Protection and Preservation of Animals and Animal Species”, published February 25, 2022, in Frontiers of Animal Science. Also becoming active in this field now is the famous ethicist Peter Singer. Together with his co-author Yip Fai Tse, he published the article “AI ethics: the case for including animals” in July 2022. From the abstract: “The ethics of artificial intelligence, or AI ethics, is a rapidly growing field, and rightly so. While the range of issues and groups of stakeholders concerned by the field of AI ethics is expanding, with speculation about whether it extends even to the machines themselves, there is a group of sentient beings who are also affected by AI, but are rarely mentioned within the field of AI ethics – the nonhuman animals. This paper seeks to explore the kinds of impact AI has on nonhuman animals, the severity of these impacts, and their moral implications. We hope that this paper will facilitate the development of a new field of philosophical and technical research regarding the impacts of AI on animals, namely, the ethics of AI as it affects nonhuman animals.” (Peter Singer and Yip Fai Tse 2022) In the text, the authors write: “Of the hundreds of AI ethics related papers we reviewed in this project, we only found four that concern the impacts of AI on animals, in a general way, and discuss the relevant ethical implications. They are: ‘Towards animal-friendly machines’ by Oliver Bendel, ‘AI Ethics and Value Alignment for Nonhuman Animals’ by Soenke Ziesche, ‘Moral Consideration of Nonhumans in the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence’ by Andrea Owe and Seth Baum and ‘Animals and AI. The role of animals in AI research and application – An overview and ethical evaluation’ by Leonie Bossert and Thilo Hagendorf.” (Peter Singer and Yip Fai Tse 2022) The article will certainly give the young disciplines a further boost.

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Chess Robot Breaks Finger of Young Opponent at the Moscow Open

According to the Guardian, a chess-playing robot, “apparently unsettled by the quick responses of a seven-year-old boy, unceremoniously grabbed and broke his finger during a match at the Moscow Open” (Guardian, July 24, 2022). That’s a strange formulation, though, because the robot certainly wasn’t unsettled. It simply does not comply with current safety regulations and should never have been used in this form. Sergey Smagin, vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation, even twists things when he says: “There are certain safety rules and the child, apparently, violated them. When he made his move, he did not realise he first had to wait …” (Guardian, July 24, 2022) In such a setting, the robot should follow safety rules rather than the human. In chess, one is focused on the game and highly tense. One should not still have to adjust to the behavior of the cobot. Cobots are useful tools in production and logistics and also in the service area. The models from Kuka, Franka Emika, or F&P Robotics are very safe to operate. The chess robot that was used in Moscow is not at the current technical level.

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A Robot Charging Station for the Disabled

According to a media release, Ford has developed a prototype robot charging station that drivers operate via their smartphone from inside their electric vehicle. The technology could enable disabled persons to stay in the Ford (or another car) while charging, or they could leave the vehicle while the robot completes the task. Disabled drivers, the company says, have already identified ease of charging as a key purchase consideration for electric vehicles. The robot charging station is tested as part of a research project to develop hands-free charging solutions for electric vehicles and fully automatic charging for autonomous vehicles. “Following initial lab testing, Ford researchers are now putting the robot charging station to the test in real-life situations. Once activated, the station cover slides open and the charging arm extends towards the inlet with the help of a tiny camera. For the trial, drivers were able to monitor the charge status via the FordPass app. After charging, the arm retracts back into place.” (Ford Media Release, July 20, 2022) More information is available via the Ford Media Center.

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Robots in Law and Policing

Robophilosophy 2022 at the University of Helsinki is the fifth event in the biennial Robophilosophy Conference Series. It “will explore the societal significance of social robots for the future of social institutions with its usual broad scope, embracing both theoretical and practical angles” (CfP Robophilosophy). It “is an invitation to philosophers and other SSH researchers, as well as researchers in social robotics and HRI, to investigate from interdisciplinarily informed perspectives whether and how social robotics as an interdisciplinary endeavour can contribute to the ability of our institutions to perform their functions in society” (CfP Robophilosophy). Social institutions include retirement and nursing homes, strip clubs and brothels, monasteries and seminaries, and police departments. Oliver Bendel (School of Business FHNW) will have the opportunity to present his paper entitled “Robots in Policing” in session 1, “Robots in Law and Policing”. Cindy Friedman (“Granting Negative Rights to Humanoid Robots”) and Jakob Stenseke (“The Use and Abuse of Normative Ethics for Moral Machines”) will speak after him. In addition, a poster by Katharina Kühne and Melinda Mende (University of Potsdam) as well als Oliver Bendel entitled “Tamagotchi on our couch: Are social robots perceived as pets?” was accepted. The full program is now available online.

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Robots Dancing Like Bees

Robot-robot communication and interaction usually takes place via networks. Spoken language can also be used. In certain situations, however, these methods reach their limits. For example, during a rescue operation in disaster areas, communication via radio signals might not be possible. With this in mind, Kaustubh Joshi from the University of Maryland and Abhra Roy Chowdhury from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed an alternative approach. Their paper states: “This research presents a novel bio-inspired framework for two robots interacting together for a cooperative package delivery task with a human-in the-loop. It contributes to eliminating the need for network-based robot-robot interaction in constrained environments. An individual robot is instructed to move in specific shapes with a particular orientation at a certain speed for the other robot to infer using object detection (custom YOLOv4) and depth perception. The shape is identified by calculating the area occupied by the detected polygonal route. A metric for the area’s extent is calculated and empirically used to assign regions for specific shapes and gives an overall accuracy of 93.3% in simulations and 90% in a physical setup. Additionally, gestures are analyzed for their accuracy of intended direction, distance, and the target coordinates in the map. The system gives an average positional RMSE of 0.349 in simulation and 0.461 in a physical experiment.” (Abstract) The way of interaction and communication is reminiscent of the bee dance – and indeed this served as a model. The paper can be accessed via www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2022.915884/full.

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About Manipulative Robots in Retail

On June 30, 2022, the paper “Should Social Robots in Retail Manipulate Customers?” by Oliver Bendel and Liliana Margarida Dos Santos Alves was published on arxiv.org. It was presented at the AAAI 2022 Spring Symposium “How Fair is Fair? Achieving Wellbeing AI” at Stanford University and came in third place in the Best Presentation Awards. From the abstract: “Against the backdrop of structural changes in the retail trade, social robots have found their way into retail stores and shopping malls in order to attract, welcome, and greet customers; to inform them, advise them, and persuade them to make a purchase. Salespeople often have a broad knowledge of their product and rely on offering competent and honest advice, whether it be on shoes, clothing, or kitchen appliances. However, some frequently use sales tricks to secure purchases. The question arises of how consulting and sales robots should “behave”. Should they behave like human advisors and salespeople, i.e., occasionally manipulate customers? Or should they be more honest and reliable than us? This article tries to answer these questions. After explaining the basics, it evaluates a study in this context and gives recommendations for companies that want to use consulting and sales robots. Ultimately, fair, honest, and trustworthy robots in retail are a win-win situation for all concerned.” The paper will additionally be published in the proceedings volume of the symposium by the end of summer. It can be downloaded via arxiv.org/abs/2206.14571.