Beyond 100 Ethical Concerns in the Development of Robot-to-Robot Cooperation

This paper investigates ethical issues implicated in multi-robot cooperation development. The authors explore the possibilities of applying ECCOLA—a tool and method for ethical AI software development in the context of robot-to-robot cooperation. The method entailed a workshop of researchers (N=10) who ideated multi-robot ethical concerns (N=149). These were analysed by an external researcher and emergent themes were compared to the ECCOLA framework. The results show the need for expansion of the ECCOLA framework. The paper makes three important contributions: 1) application of ECCOLA in multi-robot cooperation; 2) identification of ethical concerns for robot-to-robot cooperation; and 3) urgency for attention towards mutual cooperation and confrontation in multi-robot cooperation.