This book highlights some of the most pressing safety, ethical, legal and societal issues related to the diverse contexts in which robotic technologies apply. Focusing on the essential concept of well-being, it addresses topics that are fundamental not only for research, but also for industry and end-users, discussing the challenges in a wide variety of applications, including domestic robots, autonomous manufacturing, personal care robots and drones.

This open access book examines recent advances in how artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics have elicited widespread debate over their benefits and drawbacks for humanity. The emergent technologies have for instance implications within medicine and health care, employment, transport, manufacturing, agriculture, and armed conflict. While there has been considerable attention devoted to robotics/AI applications in each of these domains, a fuller picture of their connections and the possible consequences for our shared humanity seems needed. This volume covers multidisciplinary research, examines current research frontiers in AI/robotics and likely impacts on societal well-being, human – robot relationships, as well as the opportunities and risks for sustainable development and peace. The attendant ethical and religious dimensions of these technologies are addressed and implications for regulatory policies on the use and future development of AI/robotics technologies are elaborated.

Transcultural Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Health and Social Care provides healthcare professionals with a deeper understanding of the incredible opportunities brought by the emerging field of AI robotics. In addition, it provides robotic researchers with the point-of-view of healthcare professionals to understand what the healthcare sector – as well as the market – really needs from robotics technology. By doing so, the book fills an important gap between both fields in order to leverage new developments and collaborative work in favor of global patients. The book is aimed at the non-technical reader, especially health and social care professionals, and explains in a simple way the technological principles applied in the development of socially assistive humanoid AI robots (SAHR), the values which guide such developments, the ethics related to them, and research approaches in the field, with a focus on achieving a culturally competent SAHR. - 2023 PROSE Awards - Winner: Category: Nursing and Allied Health: Association of American Publishers - Presents user-friendly and stage-by-stage information to help readers appreciate how AI robots work and how they can be integrated in their work environments - Explains why AI and socially assistive robotics need to be culturally competent - Helps reduce readers' fears and change negative prejudices they may have about robots as a relevant tool for healthcare - Written by experts in AI robotics and the creators of transcultural health/social robotics - Informed by the largest trial conducted with real patients

This volume contains papers that have been selected after review for oral presentation at ISRM 2015, the Fourth IFToMM International Symposium on Robotics and Mechatronics held in Poitiers, France 23-24 June 2015. These papers provide a vision of the evolution of the disciplines of robotics and mechatronics, including but not limited to: mechanism design; modeling and simulation; kinematics and dynamics of multibody systems; control methods; navigation and motion planning; sensors and actuators; bio-robotics; micro/nano-robotics; complex robotic systems; walking machines, humanoids-parallel kinematic structures: analysis and synthesis; smart devices; new design; application and prototypes. The book can be used by researchers and engineers in the relevant areas of robotics and mechatronics.

The work is a collection of contributions resulting from R&D efforts originated from scientific projects involving academia, technological partners, and end-user institutions. The aim is to provide a comprehensive overview of robotics technology applied to Healthcare, and discuss the anticipation of upcoming challenges. The intersection of Robotics and Medicine includes socially and economically relevant areas, such as rehabilitation, therapy, and healthcare. Innovative usages of current robotics technologies are being somewhat stranded by concerns related to social dynamics. The examples covered in this volume show some of the potential societal benefits robotics can bring and how the robots are being integrated in social environments. Despite the aforementioned concerns, a fantastic range of possibilities is being opened. The current trend in social robotics adds to technology challenges and requires R&D to think about Robotics as an horizontal discipline, intersecting social and exact sciences. For example, robots that can act as if they have credible personalities (not necessarily similar to humans) living in social scenarios, eventually helping people. Also, robots can move inside the human body to retrieve information that otherwise is difficult to obtain. The decision autonomy of these robots raises a broad range of subjects though the immediate advantages of its use are evident. The book presents examples of robotics technologies tested in healthcare environments or realistically close to being deployed in the field and discusses the challenges involved. Chapter 1 provides a comprehensive overview of Healthcare robotics and points to realistically expectable developments in the near future. Chapter 2 describes the challenges deploying a social robot in the Pediatrics ward of an Oncological hospital for simple edutainment activities. Chapter 3 focuses on Human-Robot Interaction techniques and their role in social robotics. Chapter 4 focus on R&D efforts behind an endoscopic capsule robot. Chapter 5 addresses experiments in rehabilitation with orthotics and walker robots. These examples have deep social and economic relations with the Healthcare field, and, at the same time, are representative of the R&D efforts the robotics community is developing.

Robotics for Pandemics explores various applications of robots for current global issues such as pandemics and how robotic solutions could combat the virus. Key Features Proposes to employ robots to improve the treatment of patients and leverage the load of the medical system Demonstrates the concept of various robotics in healthcare telepresence, rehabilitation, therapy and delivery robots to accommodate social distancing Explores social robot aesthetics and how social interaction and embodied experiences could be useful during social isolation Includes anecdotes from applications used during the COVID-19 pandemic This will be a valuable reference to professionals, academics and researchers in the field of robotics.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Well-Being in the Information Society, WIS 2022, held in Turku, Finland, in August 2022. The 14 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 17 submissions. The proceedings are structured in four sections as follows: ​mental well-being and e-health; social media and well-being; innovative solution for well-being in the information society; driving well-being in the information society.

Prominent experts from science and the humanities explore issues in robot ethics that range from sex to war. Robots today serve in many roles, from entertainer to educator to executioner. As robotics technology advances, ethical concerns become more pressing: Should robots be programmed to follow a code of ethics, if this is even possible? Are there risks in forming emotional bonds with robots? How might society—and ethics—change with robotics? This volume is the first book to bring together prominent scholars and experts from both science and the humanities to explore these and other questions in this emerging field. Starting with an overview of the issues and relevant ethical theories, the topics flow naturally from the possibility of programming robot ethics to the ethical use of military robots in war to legal and policy questions, including liability and privacy concerns. The contributors then turn to human-robot emotional relationships, examining the ethical implications of robots as sexual partners, caregivers, and servants. Finally, they explore the possibility that robots, whether biological-computational hybrids or pure machines, should be given rights or moral consideration. Ethics is often slow to catch up with technological developments. This authoritative and accessible volume fills a gap in both scholarly literature and policy discussion, offering an impressive collection of expert analyses of the most crucial topics in this increasingly important field.

This book analyses the legal, ethical and social aspects of using deep-learning AI robotic products. The collective effort of distinguished international researchers has been incorporated into one book suitable for the broader audience interested in the emerging scientific field of roboethics. The book has been edited by Prof. George Dekoulis, Aerospace Engineering Institute, Cyprus, expert on state-of-the-art implementations of robotic systems for unmanned spacecraft navigation and other aerospace applications. We hope this book will increase the sensitivity of all the community members involved with roboethics. The significance of incorporating all aspects of roboethics right at the beginning of the creation of a new deep-learning AI robot is emphasised and analysed throughout the book. AI robotic systems offer an unprecedented set of virtues to the society. However, the principles of roboethical design and operation of deep-learning AI robots must be strictly legislated, the manufacturers should apply the laws and the knowledge development of the AI robots should be closely monitored after sales. This will minimise the drawbacks of implementing such intelligent technological solutions. These devices are a representation of ourselves and form communities like us. Learning from them is also a way to improve ourselves.