Robotics, Ethics and their Challenges

Paladyn, Journal of Behavioral Robotics invites submissions for its topical issue entitled “Roboethics.”

Editorial Board/Guest Editors:
Fiorella Operto (lead GE), The School of Robotics, Italy (email: operto@scuoladirobotica.it)
Raja Chatila, ISIR, University Pierre and Marie Curie, France
Guido Nicolosi, University of Catania, Italy
George Bekey, University of Southern California, USA
Mariachiara Tallacchini, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italy

Editorial Advisory Board:
Gianmarco Veruggio, CNR-IEIIT, Italy
Mohammad Osman Tokhi, London South Bank University, UK

Employed by human society in numbers and applications larger than today, robotics is likely to trigger widespread social and economic changes, opening new social and ethical problems for which designers, manufacturers, end user, and public, and private policy must be prepared now.

As the application field for robots is widening, and as the robot is coming out of the factory halls (e.g., cobots), new challenges crop up, while a change of paradigm is taking shape. New human-robot interactions are  forecast to emerge, involving human body, health care and augmentation issues, while raising privacy concerns, posing challenges for human communication and social interactions, and deepening the digital/robotics divide.

Roboethics deals with the ethical aspects of the design, development and employment of intelligent machines. It shares many subjects and methodology with computer ethics, information ethics and bioethics. Roboethical issues are new and yet to be fully explored, involving transdisciplinarity, while calling for original solutions for which we would need the contributions and efforts of all scientific and human disciplines, in a common endeavor.

In fact, not only roboticists, but also Law, Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, and Philosophy scholars are studying the potentialities of these intelligent machines in relation to human beings.

Topics related to roboethical issues include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Economy (replacing humans in the workplace; robotics and the job market)
• Psychology (position of humans in the control hierarchy; robots and children)
• Law (robots and liability; deployment of autonomously acting robots)
• Health (robotics in surgery; robotics in health care, assistance, prosthetics and therapy)
• Military application of robotics (acceptability, advantages and risks, codes)
• Environment (underwater robotics noise pollution; cleaning nuclear and toxic waste)
• Service (social robotics, personal assistants, companions)
• Technical dependability (availability; reliability; safety; security)

The authors are requested to submit their full revised version of papers to the topical issue, while complying with the general scope of the journal. The submitted papers will undergo peer-review process before they can be accepted. Notification of acceptance will be communicated as we progress with the review process.

Before submission authors should carefully read the Instructions for Authors:
https://www.degruyter.com/view/supplement/s20814836_Instructions_for_Authors.pdf

Manuscripts can be written in TeX, LaTeX (strongly recommended). Please note that we do not accept papers in Plain TEX format. Text files can be also submitted as standard DOCUMENT (.DOC) which is acceptable if the submission in LATEX is not possible. For an initial submission, the authors are strongly advised to upload their entire manuscript, including tables and figures, as a single PDF file. Authors are strongly advised to submit the final version of the paper using the journal’s LATEX template.

All submissions to the Topical Issue must be made electronically via the online submission system:
http://www.editorialmanager.com/paladyn/
All manuscripts will undergo the standard peer review process (single-blind, at least two independent reviewers). When entering your submission via online submission system please choose the option “Topical Issue on Roboethics”.

As the result of cooperation with the International Conference on Robot Ethics and Standards (ICRES 2019), that will be held in London, 29-30 July 2019, the Topical Issue will be also open for submissions of extended version of conference papers with an intention of publishing them in the year 2020 (Topical Issue on Roboethics, Part III).

The deadlines for the submission are as follows:
Part II (publication in 2019): 30 April 2019
Part III (publication in 2020): 31 January 2020
Individual papers will be reviewed and published online on an ongoing basis.

Contributors to the Topical Issue will benefit from:

• indexation in SCOPUS
• NO submission and publication FEES
• fair and constructive peer review provided by experts in the field
• no space constraints
• convenient, web-based paper submission and tracking system – Editorial Manager
• free language assistance for authors from non-English speaking regions
• fast online publication upon completing the publishing process (continuous publication model)
• better visibility due to Open Access
• long-term preservation of the content (all articles archived in Portico)
• extensive post-publication promotion for selected papers

We are looking forward to your submission!
In case of any question please contact Dr. Justyna Żuk, Managing Editor of Paladyn, JBR (Justyna.Zuk@degruyter.com).

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Edited by Pablo Markin

Featured Image Credits: 150909-N-PX557-039, September 9, 2015 | © Courtesy of Chief Mass Communication Specialist James E. Foehl/U.S. Naval War College/Flickr.