Ethical Challenges in the Human-Robot Interaction Field

TL;DR

This paper highlights five key ethical issues in human-robot interaction, emphasizing the need for ethical awareness and discussion among researchers to address potential implications on participants.

Contribution

It introduces specific ethical challenges in HRI and advocates for increased ethical discourse to improve research practices and participant safety.

Findings

Identification of five ethical issues in HRI

Underreporting of ethical conduct in HRI research

Call for broader ethical discussion in the field

Abstract

The aim of this extended abstract is to introduce five examples of ethical issues in HRI that could have potential ethical implications, particularly on HRI participants. We consider these examples important to discuss in order to reach a consensus on how to handle them. Due to space limitations, this list is far from exhaustive and we hope that it can lead to a wider discussion that stimulates HRI researchers to think ethically. Previous work has shown a trend of underreporting ethical conduct in the HRI field; in this extended abstract we consider some of the ethical issues that could arise in HRI research.