Boundaries in Play-based Cloudcompanion-mediated Robotic Therapies
From Deception to Privacy Concerns
Eduard Fosch-Villaronga
Joint International Doctoral (Ph.D.) Degree in Law, Science and Technology coordinated by CIRSFID, Università
di Bologna, Italy. IDT-UAB, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain (e-mail: eduard.fosch@unibo.it).
Jordi Albo-Canals
CEEO, Tufts University Boston, Massachusetts, US (e-mail: jordi.albo_canals@tufts.edu)
Introduction
• Discourse of robotics: brainstorming phase
• Some projects regarding robot therapy: DREAM
• Literature: benefits of the therapy, ethical issues
BUT
• Legal boundaries?
Juridical Principles
European Charter of Fundamental Rights: Dignity, Human integrity, Equality, Health
Care,
Privacy,
Data
Protection,
Freedom
of
Thought/Expression,
Cultural/Religious/Linguistic diversity, Good administration, non-discrimination, Fair
Working conditions, etc.
[B-J. Koops et al. “Robotic Technologies and Fundamental Rights. Robotics Challenging the European Constitutional Framework” Int J Tech
Ethics, 4(2), 2013, pp. 15-35.]
EU RoboLaw Project
- 5 legal themes: health, safety, consumer, and environmental regulation; liability;
intellectual property rights; privacy and data protection; and capacity to perform
legal transactions
Care Robots
- 9 ethical questions: safety, responsibility, autonomy, independence, enablement,
privacy, social connectedness, new technologies and justice, and ethics and scientific
research
- In addition to this: importance of respecting fundamental rights (e.g. independence
and autonomy in the light of independent living, participating in community life,
equality and access), liability and insurance, privacy, and the legal capacity and legal
acts performed by robots.
D6.2. Guidelines on Regulating Robotics. EU RoboLaw Project, 2014, more specifically pp. 167-196 also p. 18.
Care Robots
Personal Care Robots: service robot that performs actions contributing directly
towards improvement in the quality of life of humans, excluding medical applications.
Medical Device: any instrument, apparatus, appliance, software, material or
other article, whether used alone or in combination, including the software
intended by its manufacturer to be used specifically for diagnostic and/or therapeutic
purposes and necessary for its proper application, intended by the manufacturer
to be used for human beings for the purpose of:
- diagnosis, prevention, monitoring, treatment or alleviation disease
- Diagnosis, monitoring, treatment, alleviation of or compensation for an injury
or handicap,
- Investigation, replacement or modification of the anatomy or of a
physiological process,
- Control of conception
[Barriers to Market, Development, Use]
Lack of coherent theoretical and functional framework of the domains, hence
requirements and terminology are not consistent across stakeholders
[ROBOTICS 2020 Multi-Annual Roadmap – For Robotics in Europe, Call 2 ICT 24 (2015), Horizon 2020, SPARC]
Problem
• There is no concrete definition of “care robots” or
“therapeutic robots”.
• There are confusing categories among ISO 13482:2014
Personal Care Robots (Toy Robots, Medical Devices).
• There is no concrete binding regulation addressing what
fundamental rights these robots might violate; if they
should be granted agenthood; or what happens if they
cause harm
• This technology is already entering the market
This leads roboticists building a
precise technology to a two-fold
problem:
1. The identification of the
principles involved in their
technology;
1. The understanding of their
meaning
Identification/Understanding
of the Involved Principles
Variables
• Human-Robot Interaction
• Attributes of the Robot
• Technology applied to the Robot
• Context where is inserted
Human-Robot Interaction
PCaR: Person Carrier Robot
PAR: Physical Assistant Robot
MSR: Mobile Servant Robot
TR Therapeutic Robot
CR: Companion Robot
This is important because
As Hookie aims at working at the
cognitive level improving the social
skills of the autistic children. This
could be involved in:
- Cognitive harm
- Prospective liability
“There is the possibility that a
medical robot will cause harms to its
patients in the future”
[E. Datteri. Predicting the Long-Term Effects of Human- Robot Interaction:
A Reflection on Responibility in Medical Robotics. Sci Eng Ethics 19, 2013,
pp. 139-160.]
Attributes of the Robot
Privacy and Safety are the biggest concerns in robotics
“Robotics combines […] the promiscuity of information
with the capacity to do physical harm”
[R. Calo, “Robotics and the Lessons of Cyberlaw”. California Law Review 103, 2015, pp. 101-148.]
 Encrypted tunnel to protect data-in-motion
 Private cloud with an individual login and password to
protect data-at-rest
 Access to data is restricted to researchers in the project
 Data will be deleted after 3 years
Autonomy two-fold issue
A) Robot perspective:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Deception (WoZ) : although blind research is permitted
Liability
Artificial empathy
Agenthood: on-going debate (liability)
Replacement of human therapists
 The more autonomous a technology is, the more it needs to be
sensible to values an norms. [S. Steinert, “The Five Robots – A Taxonomy for
Roboethics” Int J Soc Rob 6, 2014, pp. 249-260]
 Public Attitudes towards care robots are not very good
on Autonomous Systems 2015, p. 30]
[Eurobarometer 427
Autonomy two-fold issue
B) User perspective:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Acceptance
a)
Physical appearance (Hookie is non-biomimetic)
b)
Responsivity (proxemics)
Final say of the parents: general therapy provided by the State
Auto-Exclusion: the robot should not promote it
Agenthood
Replacement of human therapists
Technology applied to the Robot
 Hookie aims at processing big data: IBM Watson
 Profiling, individualised treatment: privacy concerns
 Hookie will diagnose autism in the future: Medical Device
 External sensors can record data irrelevant to the therapy
Context
This include
a) physical premises: structured/unstructured environments
b) Integration in school projects
c) End user: severity of the autism, age of the user
 This involves Government and Public Institutions, as they are meant to
ensure the principle of justices, e.g. the equal distribution of available
resources
 This also conceals an intrinsic moral duty to roboticists, i.e. the
creation of affordable and accessible technology (which is a primary
objective of Hookie)
Conclusions
The identification of general principles concerning robotics represents a great effort
towards something yet unaddressed by policy makers.
Even so, roboticists need to know the concrete principles underlying their particular
technology.
These can be classified according to the HRI: The more complex the HRI is, the more
complex the associated legal issues become
However, only taking into account other variables like robot attributes, the
technology applied to the robot and the context where it will be inserted, it will be
possible to know precisely which principles will apply to each particular situation.
Principles
Principle of safety
Principle of User Protection
Principle of liability
Hookie
Principle of user rights
safeguard
Concreteness
Safety
Health
Consumer Protection
Environmental Regulation
Cosmesis
General Liability
Prospective Liability
Legal Transactions
Insurance
Privacy
Data Protection
Intellectual Property Rights
Hookie
X
X
X
X
--------X
X
--------X
X
X
---------
Non-Discrimination
Final Say /
Enabling Human Capabilities
X
X
X
Acceptance
Persuasion
X
X
Non Replacement of Human
Caregivers
X
Principle of non-i solation and Non Replacement of Human
Feelings
social connectedness
X
Principle to an independent
living and autonomy
Context of Autoexclusion
X
Dignity
X
Limitation to open scenarios
Principle of autonomous ethical with non-mission tasks
agents’ minimization
Avoidance of post-monitoring
Ethical Agents
Equality
Principle of justice
Access (in cost terms)
Access (in opport unities)
X
X
X
X
X
X
Therapeutic Robots
Standardising:
- Robot’s spatial behaviour in
response to human presence
- Robot’s noise level for robots in
human environment
- Perception for HRI
- Generic and High-Priority
commands for HRI
- Gestures across different cultures
- Relationship that evolves
over time
- Social and emotional
investment
- Personality of the robot
- Intelligence, multimodal
- Robot App Stores
- Social state recognition
- Robot learning
Future Work
Practical
solutions to the
legal issues
identified
Thank you for your
attention!
Eduard Fosch-Villaronga
Joint International Doctoral (Ph.D.) Degree in Law, Science and
Technology coordinated by CIRSFID, Università di Bologna,
Italy. IDT-UAB, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
(e-mail: eduard.fosch@unibo.it).
Jordi Albo-Canals
CEEO, Tufts University Boston, Massachusetts,
US (e-mail: jordi.albo_canals@tufts.edu)
Thank you for your
attention
Eduard Fosch-Villaronga
Joint International Doctoral (Ph.D.) Degree in Law, Science and Technology coordinated by CIRSFID, Università
di Bologna, Italy. IDT-UAB, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain (e-mail: eduard.fosch@unibo.it).
Jordi Albo-Canals
CEEO, Tufts University Boston, Massachusetts, US (e-mail: jordi.albo_canals@tufts.edu)