Paper Title
General Awareness of Robot Ethics: A Case Study of Jordanian Mechatronics Engineering Students
Abstract
Robots have recently invaded our lives. Despite being indispensable tools, weaved into the fabric of our daily lives, they have introduced many ethical and social aspects. Nonetheless, the literature review shows that the awareness of robot ethics amongst engineering students has not been sufficiently investigated. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the awareness of engineering students to robot ethical issues and elicit their responses to ethically related problems. A semi-structured interview, showing some scenarios that involve a risk of robots interfering into people‘s lives in an unrestrained way was conducted on 50 Mechatronics engineering students at Philadelphia University, in Jordan. Results revealed students‘ lack of sufficient knowledge about robot ethics; their responses did not indicate a clear conceptualization of robot ethics. After been provided with detailed information about robot ethics, the participants reveal some concerns and offer some suggestions on how to embody ethics in robotic design considering issues relating to privacy, safety and the security of humankind. The present study opens up new avenues for future research to be conducted to further assess students‘ ethical awareness and behavior.
Index Terms - Ethical Applications, Mechatronics Engineering Students Robots, Robot Ethics