Take a look at the new version of this page: [ beta version ]. Tell us what you think.

ABSTRACT

This paper provides the motivation and philosophy underlying the design of an ethical control and reasoning system potentially suitable for constraining lethal actions in an autonomous robotic system, so that its behavior will fall within the bounds prescribed by the Laws of War and Rules of Engagement. This research, funded by the U.S. Army Research Office, is intended to ensure that robots do not behave illegally or unethically in the battlefield. Reasons are provided for the necessity of developing such a system at this time, as well as arguments for and against its creation.

REFERENCES

• 1: Arkin, R.C., "Governing Ethical Behavior: Embedding an Ethical Controller in a Hybrid Deliberative-Reactive Robot Architecture - Part II: Formalization for Ethical Control", Proc. 1st Conference on Artificial General Intelligence, Memphis, TN, March 2008.
• 2: Arkin, R.C., "Governing Lethal Behavior: Embedding Ethics in a Hybrid Deliberative/Reactive Robot Architecture - Part III: Representational and Architectural Considerations", Proc. Technology in Wartime Conference, Stanford, CA, Jan. 2008.
• 3: Arkin, R.C., "Governing Ethical Behavior: Embedding an Ethical Controller in a Hybrid Deliberative-Reactive Robot Architecture", GVU Technical Report GIT-GVU-07-11, College of Computing, Georgia Tech, 2007.
• 4: May, L., Rovie, E., and Viner, S., The Morality of War: Classical and Contemporary Readings, Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2005.
• 5: Clausewitz, C. Von, "On the Art of War", in The Morality of War: Classical and Contemporary Readings, (Eds. L. May, E. Rovie, and S. Viner 2005), Pearson-Prentice Hall, pp. 115-121, 1832.
• 6: Cook, M., The Moral Warrior: Ethics and Service in the U.S. Military, State University of New York Press, 2004.
• 7: Wells, D., (Ed.), An Encyclopedia of War and Ethics, Greenwood Press, 1996.
• 8: Walzer, M., Just and Unjust Wars, 4th Ed., Basic Books, 1977.
• 9: Fieser, J. and Dowden, B., "Just War Theory", The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2007
• 10: Department of Defense Joint Publication 1-02, Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, April 2001, Amended through June 2007.
• 11: Hartle, A., Moral Issues in Military Decision Making, 2nd Ed., Revised, University Press of Kansas, 2004.
• 12: Wikipedia, "Laws of War", 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_war,.
• 13: Yoder, J.H., "When War is Unjust: Being Honest in Just-War Thinking", in The Morality of War: Classical and Contemporary Readings, (Eds. L. May, et al, 2005), Pearson-Prentice Hall, pp. 153-159, 1984.
• 14: Department of Defense, Unmanned Systems Safety Guide for DOD Acquisition, 1st Edition, Version .96, Jan. 2007.
• 15: Argy, P., "Ethics Dilemma in Killer Bots", Australian IT News, June 14, 2007.
• 16: Samsung Techwin, http://www.samsungtechwin.com/product/features/dep/SSsystem_e/SSsystem.html, 2007.
• 17: Kumagai, J., "A Robotic Sentry for Korea's Demilitarized Zone", IEEE Spectrum, March 2007.
• 18: Jewell, M., "Taser, iRobot team up to arm robots", AP News Wire, June 2007.
• 19: Foster-Miller Inc., "Products & Service: TALON Military Robots, EOD, SWORDS, and Hazmat Robots", http://www.foster-miller.com/lemming.htm, 2007.
• 20: Opall-Rome, B., "Israel Wants Robotic Guns, Missiles to Guard Gaza", Defensenews.com, 2007.
• 21: Lockheed-Martin, Mule /ARV-A(L), Fact Sheet, 2007.
• 22: Air Force, "Reaper moniker given to MQ-9 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle", Official Website of the United States Air Force, 2006.
• 23: Erwin, S., "For the First Time, Navy will Launch Weapons from Surveillance Drones", National Defense, June 2007.
• 24: U.S. Army SBIR Solicitation 07.2, Topic A07-032 "Multi-Agent Based Small Unit Effects Planning and Collaborative Engagement with Unmanned Systems", pp. Army 57--68, 2007.
• 25: Joint Government/Industry Unmanned Systems Safety Initiatives, "Programmatic/Design/Operational Safety Precepts Rev F", 2007.
• 26: Sagan, S., "Rules of Engagement", in Avoiding War: Problems of Crisis Management (Ed. A. George), Westview Press, 1991.
• 27: Surgeon General's Office, Mental Health Advisory Team (MHAT) IV Operation Iraqi Freedom 05-07, Final Report, Nov. 17, 2006.
• 28: Bill, B. (Ed.), Law of War Workshop Deskbook, International and Operational Law Department, Judge Advocate General's School, June 2000.
• 29: Sparrow, R., "Killer Robots", Journal of Applied Philosophy, Vol. 24, No.1, 2006.
• 30: Sparrow, R., Personal Communication, July 2, 2007.
• 31: Asaro, P., "What Should We Want From a Robot Ethic?" International Review of Information Ethics, Vol. 6, pp. 9--16, Dec. 2006.
• 32: Perri 6, "Ethics, Regulation and the New Artificial Intelligence, Part II: Autonomy and Liability", Information, Communication and Society, 4:3, pp. 406--434, 2001.
• 33: Sullins, J., "When is a Robot a Moral Agent?" International Journal of information Ethics, Vol. 6, 12, 2006.
• 34: Dennett, D., "When HAL Kills, Who's to Blame?", in HAL's Legacy: 2001's Computer as Dream and Reality, (Ed. D. Stork), MIT Press, 1996.
• 35: Himma, K., "Artificial Agency, Consciousness, and the Criteria for Moral Agency: What Properties Must an Artificial Agent Have to be a Moral Agent?" 7th International Computer Ethics Conference, San Diego, CA, July 2007.
• 36: Asaro, P., "How Just Could a Robot War Be?", presentation at 5th European Computing and Philosophy Conference, Twente, NL, June 2007.
• 37: Canning, J., Riggs, G., Holland, O., Blakelock, C., "A Concept for the Operation of Armed Autonomous Systems on the Battlefield", Proc. AUVSI 2004, Anaheim, CA, Aug. 2004.
• 38: Woodruff, P., "Justification or Excuse: Saving Soldiers at the Expense of Civilians", in The Morality of War: Classical and Contemporary Readings, (Eds. L. May, E. Rovie, and S. Viner, 2005), Pearson-Prentice Hall, pp. 281--291, 1982.
• 39: Anderson, K., "The Ethics of Robot Soldiers?", Kenneth Anderson's Law of Jaw and Just War Theory Blog, July 4, 2007.
• 40: Likhachev, M., Kaess, M., and Arkin, R.C., "Learning Behavioral Parameterization Using Spatio-Temporal Case-based Reasoning", 2002 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Washington, D.C., May 2002.
• 41: Ram, A., Arkin, R.C., Moorman, K., and Clark, R.J., "Case-based Reactive Navigation: A case-based method for on-line selection and adaptation of reactive control parameters in autonomous robotic systems", IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Volume 27, Part B, No. 3, June 1997, pp. 376--394.
• 42: Walzer, M., Arguing About War, Yale Univ. Press, 2004.
• 43: Bring, O., "International Humanitarian Law After Kosovo: Is Lex Lata Sufficient?", in Legal and Ethical Lessons of NATO's Kosovo Campaign, International Law Studies (Ed. A. Wall), Naval War College, Vol. 78, pp. 257--272, 2002.
• 44: Asimov, I. I, Robot, New York: Doubleday & Co., 1950.
• 45: Asimov, I., Robots and Empire, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1985.
• 46: Anderson, S., "Asimov's 'Three Laws of Robotics' and Machine Metaethics", AI and Society, Springer, published online March 2007.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.7 COMPUTERS IN OTHER SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Military

General Terms:
Legal Aspects

Keywords:
ethics, robotics