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Ethical design of a robot platform for disabled employees: some practical methodological considerations
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| Tommaso Colombino, Danilo Gallo, Shreepriya Shreepriya, Yesook Im, Seijin Cha |
| International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), virtual event, 15-19 November, 2021 |
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AUTHOR=Colombino Tommaso, Gallo Danilo, Shreepriya Shreepriya, Im Yesook, Cha Seijin TITLE=Ethical Design of a Robot Platform for Disabled Employees: Some Practical Methodological Considerations JOURNAL=Frontiers in Robotics and AI VOLUME=8 YEAR=2021 PAGES=235 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frobt.2021.643160 DOI=10.3389/frobt.2021.643160 ISSN=2296-9144 ABSTRACT=This paper explains the process of developing a scenario involving the use of a robotic platform to enhance the work experience of disabled employees. We outline the challenges involved in revealing the potential unintended consequences of introducing elements of Artificial Intelligence, automation, and robotics into a socially and ethically complex and potentially fragile scenario, and the practical challenges involved in giving a voice to vulnerable users throughout the design process. While an ideal case scenario would involve the disabled employees as much as possible directly in the design process, this can, realistically, be a challenge. In this paper, we detail a methodological and analytic approach that is centered around ethnography and design fictions. It is designed to provide a deeper understanding of all the stakeholders involved in the scenario while encouraging ethical reflection. Based on our findings, we argue that, while it is relatively easy to adopt an a priori ethical stance through notions such as inclusivity and accessibility, there are risks involved in making such a priori prescriptions with respect to the perspectives of different stakeholders in an applied research project. More specifically, we highlight the importance of understanding the broad organizational and bureaucratic characteristics of a business or workplace when devising HRI scenarios and tasks, and of considering elements such as business models, operating philosophy, and organizational hierarchies in the design process. AUTHOR=Colombino Tommaso, Gallo Danilo, Shreepriya Shreepriya, Im Yesook, Cha Seijin TITLE=Ethical Design of a Robot Platform for Disabled Employees: Some Practical Methodological Considerations JOURNAL=Frontiers in Robotics and AI VOLUME=8 YEAR=2021 PAGES=235 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frobt.2021.643160 DOI=10.3389/frobt.2021.643160 ISSN=2296-9144 ABSTRACT=This paper explains the process of developing a scenario involving the use of a robotic platform to enhance the work experience of disabled employees. We outline the challenges involved in revealing the potential unintended consequences of introducing elements of Artificial Intelligence, automation, and robotics into a socially and ethically complex and potentially fragile scenario, and the practical challenges involved in giving a voice to vulnerable users throughout the design process. While an ideal case scenario would involve the disabled employees as much as possible directly in the design process, this can, realistically, be a challenge. In this paper, we detail a methodological and analytic approach that is centered around ethnography and design fictions. It is designed to provide a deeper understanding of all the stakeholders involved in the scenario while encouraging ethical reflection. Based on our findings, we argue that, while it is relatively easy to adopt an a priori ethical stance through notions such as inclusivity and accessibility, there are risks involved in making such a priori prescriptions with respect to the perspectives of different stakeholders in an applied research project. More specifically, we highlight the importance of understanding the broad organizational and bureaucratic characteristics of a business or workplace when devising HRI scenarios and tasks, and of considering elements such as business models, operating philosophy, and organizational hierarchies in the design process. AUTHOR=Colombino Tommaso, Gallo Danilo, Shreepriya Shreepriya, Im Yesook, Cha Seijin TITLE=Ethical Design of a Robot Platform for Disabled Employees: Some Practical Methodological Considerations JOURNAL=Frontiers in Robotics and AI VOLUME=8 YEAR=2021 PAGES=235 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frobt.2021.643160 DOI=10.3389/frobt.2021.643160 ISSN=2296-9144 ABSTRACT=This paper explains the process of developing a scenario involving the use of a robotic platform to enhance the work experience of disabled employees. We outline the challenges involved in revealing the potential unintended consequences of introducing elements of Artificial Intelligence, automation, and robotics into a socially and ethically complex and potentially fragile scenario, and the practical challenges involved in giving a voice to vulnerable users throughout the design process. While an ideal case scenario would involve the disabled employees as much as possible directly in the design process, this can, realistically, be a challenge. In this paper, we detail a methodological and analytic approach that is centered around ethnography and design fictions. It is designed to provide a deeper understanding of all the stakeholders involved in the scenario while encouraging ethical reflection. Based on our findings, we argue that, while it is relatively easy to adopt an a priori ethical stance through notions such as inclusivity and accessibility, there are risks involved in making such a priori prescriptions with respect to the perspectives of different stakeholders in an applied research project. More specifically, we highlight the importance of understanding the broad organizational and bureaucratic characteristics of a business or workplace when devising HRI scenarios and tasks, and of considering elements such as business models, operating philosophy, and organizational hierarchies in the design process. }
Simple domain-specific graphical languages and libraries can empower a variety of users to create application behaviors and logic. However, it remains challenging to produce and maintain a heterogeneous set of client applications based on these descriptions, as each client typically requires the developers to both understand and embed the domain-specific logic. This is because application logic must be encoded to some extent in both the server and client sides.
In this paper, we propose an alternative approach, which allows the specification of application logic to reside solely on the cloud. In our system, reusable application components are assembled on the cloud in different logical chains and the client is solely concerned with how data is displayed and gathered from users. In this way, the chaining of requests and responses is done by the cloud and the client side has no knowledge of the application logic. This means that the experts in the domain build modular cloud components, arrange them in logical chains, generate a simple user interface, and later leave it to client-side developers to customize the presentation.
Front. Robot. AI, 19 August 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.643160
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