Robotics and the Law: Towards responsible and sustainable adoption of industrial collaborative embodied autonomous systems in the case of digital manu

在工业4.0中，智能机器彼此数字化连接，共享信息并自主决策。这一新的工业革命浪潮有望使组织通过从根本上重新配置业务运作来提高生产力，降低风险，提高产品质量，从而增强其竞争优势。因此，工业4.0正在成为学术和商业领域的热门研究课题。然而，工业4.0是一个相当广泛的概念，在运动中包含多个层次。考虑到我的行业合作伙伴DigiTOP的兴趣，我有动力研究在数字制造中使用工业协作嵌入式自主系统。自1961年以来，机器人技术已被引入制造业。然而，传统的工业机器人在安全协议上有严格的政策，比如传感器和系统，以防止人们在机器人工作时靠近，并确保当人们在一定范围内时机器人会自动停止。另一方面，协作机器人（“cobots”）被设计成与人类一起工作，这引起了目前工业机器人安全标准之外的突出关注。例如，将机器人隔离在具有多个传感器的笼子中作为一种安全措施已不再适用。协作机器人的安全挑战不能通过简单地安装一个标准的运动检测来克服；有必要在机器人的决策标准中加入安全标准。由于协作机器人向人类学习，因此该系统必须使机器人能够区分可取的行为和有害的行为，以便机器人只能复制适当的人类手势。因此，协作机器人与人类之间的互动也创造了无休止的个人数据收集和处理的规范，这可能会挑战隐私原则。因此，这项社会法律博士研究的目的是研究数字制造背景下协作机器人带来的法律、道德和社会挑战。目标是设计一个数字工具包，以帮助企业以负责任的方式采用工业协作嵌入自治系统。由于最终用户、技术人员和执法人员必须合作才能有效地应对挑战，因此我的研究重点是了解不同利益相关者在工作场所实施协作机器人时所关注的紧迫问题。我采访了法律、政策制定、咨询、制造和机器人领域的15位专家。基于这项研究的发现，我起草了一个框架，展示了协作机器人带来的不同潜在挑战之间的关系。该框架将作为帮助确定进一步评价现行法律的相关法律框架的基础。该工具包将借鉴我博士期间探索的不同概念。

In Industry 4.0 smart machines are digitally connected with one another - sharing information and making autonomous decisions. This new wave of industrial revolution is expected to enable organizations to strengthen their competitive advantage by fundamentally reconfiguring the business operations in order to improve productivity, reduce risks, and increase product quality [1]. Therefore, Industry 4.0 is becoming a popular research topic in both academic and business arenas. However, Industry 4.0 is a rather broad concept with multiple layers incorporated into the movement. Given the interest of my industry partner, DigiTOP, I am motivated to look into the use of industrial collaborative embodied autonomous systems in digital manufacturing.Robotics has been introduced to manufacturing since 1961 [2]. However, traditional industrial robots are kept behind barriers with strict policies on the safety protocols, such as, sensors and systems to prevent people from being in close proximity to the robot while it's working and to ensure that the robot automatically stops when people are within certain range. Collaborative robots ("cobots"), on the other hand, are designed to work alongside humans which raises prominent concerns beyond current industrial robot safety standards. For example, isolating the robot in a cage with multiple sensors as a form of safety measure is no longer applicable. The safety challenges with cobots cannot be overcome by simply installing a standard movement detection; there is a need for safety standards in decision-making criteria programmed into robots. Because cobots learn from human workers, the system must enable robots to distinguish desirable behaviours from harmful behaviours so that a robot can only replicate the appropriate human gestures. Consequently, the interactions between cobots and humans also create the norms of endless personal data collection and processing which can challenge the principle of privacy. Therefore, the purpose of this socio-legal PhD research is to examine the legal, ethical and social challenges posed by cobots within the context of digital manufacturing. The goal is to design a digital toolkit to help businesses uptaking industrial collaborative embodied autonomous systems in a responsible manner.As it is mandate for end users, technologists, and law enforcers to collaborate in order to effectively tackle the challenges [4], my research focuses on understanding of the pressing concerns from different stakeholders around the implementation of cobots in the workplace. I have interviewed 15 experts in the area of law, policy making, consultancy, manufacturing, and robotics. Based on the finding of this study, I drafted a framework showing the relationship of the different underlying challenges posed by cobots. The framework will be used as the basis to help determine the relevant legal frameworks for further evaluation of the current law. The toolkit will draw on different concepts explored in my PhD.