Communications of the ACM
New Research Will Help Robots Know Their Limits
Three U.K. universities are working to ensure future autonomous robots are capable to making decisions based on laws and ethics.
Credit: University of Sheffield
Three U.K. universities are teaming up on a collaborative project to ensure the autonomous robots and systems of the future will be safer, and capable of making decisions based on laws and ethics.
The project includes teams at the universities of Sheffield, Liverpool, and Bristol, with funding from the national Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Each university will have its own area of concentration, building on their existing work.
The University of Liverpool will focus on the development and extension of formal verification techniques and tools that enable a deeper understanding of how autonomous systems make decisions.
The University of Sheffield will focus on autonomous control, learning, and decision-making. Sheffield professor Sandor Veres uses the example of teaching an autonomous car how to choose between two bad decisions, such as cutting across the street unexpectedly or braking suddenly, possible leading a following car to rear-end the autonomous vehicle.
Meanwhile, the University of Bristol will research, develop, and demonstrate robots that can base their decisions on ethical or legal standards.
The project will continue through 2016.
From University of Sheffield
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