Abstract
This work explored the use of human–robot interaction research to investigate robot ethics. A longitudinal human–robot interaction study was conducted with self-reported healthy older adults to determine whether expression of artificial emotions by a social robot could result in emotional deception and emotional attachment. The findings from this study have highlighted that currently there appears to be no adequate tools, or the means, to determine the ethical impact and concerns ensuing from long-term interactions between social robots and older adults. This raises the question whether we should continue the fundamental development of social robots if we cannot determine their potential negative impact and whether we should shift our focus to the development of human–robot interaction assessment tools that provide more objective measures of ethical impact.
Highlights
The growth in robot applications has led to human–robot interactions (HRI) in many different areas such as industry [1] and healthcare [2]
We aim to address this by investigating ethical concerns of social robots that express artificial emotions through human–robot interaction experiments
This study provided rich insights on user experiences, highlighting potential negative consequences of expression of artificial emotions by a social robot during human–robot interactions
Summary
The growth in robot applications has led to human–robot interactions (HRI) in many different areas such as industry [1] and healthcare [2]. These HRI applications can take place in the form of physical interactions (e.g., exoskeleton support [3]) or social interactions (e.g., health support, customer service [4]). Social robots can be defined as robots that employ social interactions to meet the needs of its human users [5]. They can be used for applications such as companionship [6] and as a therapeutic device [7]. An important factor in reaching this goal is the robot’s ability to interact more reliably, intuitively and naturally with people
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