Expert Considerations for the Regulation of Assistive Robotics. A European Robotics Forum Echo

Abstract

Robots and AI technologies are increasingly deployed in contexts ranging from factories, hospitals or personal homes. These technological developments may raise different types of issues, varying from the invasion of privacy, to autonomy suppression or human-human interaction decrease. Engagement with these issues is crucial to adequately guide the design of these robots with incentives and regulation. Two European projects - the Inclusive Robotics for a Better Society (INBOTS) project (G.A. No. 780073) through its WP2 on ELSE aspects, and the COST Action 16116 (CA16116) on Wearable Robots for Augmentation, Assistance or Substitution of Human Motor Functions, which has a dedicated working group (WG) on ELS issues - joined forces and organized two workshops in the INBOTS Conference 2019 during the European Robotics Forum 2019, where they gathered different experts in the field of human-robot interaction to discuss these topics. This article summarizes the main findings of such international effort, including the call for a European regulation to improve legal certainty and steer the development of assistive robots in the appropriate direction.