Responsible innovation of autonomous robots in agriculture: towards more substantive inclusion and user-centred design

苏格兰一家会员组织最近的一项调查发现，由于新冠肺炎的影响，65%的农场企业正在考虑缩减运营规模(移民咨询委员会，2020年)。大流行加上英国脱欧的不确定性，正在威胁移民劳动力的供应，从而威胁到高价值作物部门(如顶果[苹果等]、软果[草莓等]和大田蔬菜[芦笋等])的重要任务的完成。仅软果行业每年的零售额就达到15亿GB，农场企业价值4.5亿GB，需要完成收割和包装作物等关键任务，以确保企业多产，并确保这些健康产品的粮食安全。农业还需要减少碳排放，限制食物浪费和减少化学物质的使用。高价值作物部门的自主机器人可能为劳动力短缺和这些其他问题提供解决方案。机器人的电气化可以帮助减少碳排放，精密技术可以减少化学物质的使用，自主机器可能会取代通常由人类完成的工作，并提高这些健康食品的食品安全。这种技术正在接近高技术准备水平，并在世界各地的农场进行示范。然而，自主机器人存在一些社会和伦理因素--例如对农场就业的影响、网络安全、数据所有权、消费者糟糕的看法以及缺乏安全性--可能会对采用构成障碍。我们从农业创新的历史中了解到，特别是转基因作物，一些技术可能会失败，因为它们的设计没有与最终用户和其他利益相关者协商。有人建议，负责任的创新原则可能会有所帮助。这要求技术开发人员预测他们的技术的好的和坏的后果，包括开发中的广泛的利益攸关方，听取这些利益攸关方的意见和改变设计或路线(反身性)，并与政策制定者合作，制定能够帮助回应新知识或新观点的体制框架(例如政策工具、法律)。很少(如果有的话)实证工作研究如何在农业自主机器人的开发中实施负责任的创新原则。本博士学位旨在探索如何以最佳方式纳入利益相关者，确保纳入是实质性的，而不是象征性的，然后调查如何使用用户视图来优化自主机器人的设计。其目的是帮助机器人专家了解如何将响应创新原则融入到为所有利益相关者工作的机器人设计中。方法可以包括结构化的文献回顾、调查、互动研讨会、观察、与利益攸关方的公民陪审团，以及用户对机器人的看法的社交媒体分析，以及对参与开发的机器人专家的采访和观察。您将与尖端项目一起工作(例如，雷丁/林肯的“机器人高速公路”项目)，该项目正在展示自主机器人在农场环境中的应用。您还可以访问农业-EPI中心(见下文)的智能农业设施，那里正在开发和试验最先进的机器人技术。

A recent survey by a Scottish membership organisation found that 65% of farm businesses arere considering down-scaling operations due to the impact of COVID-19 (Migration Advisory Committee, 2020). The pandemic, combined with uncertainty over Brexit, is threatening the supply of migrant labour and thus the completion of vital tasks in the high-value crop sector (e.g. top fruit [apples etc.], soft fruit [strawberries etc.], and field veg [asparagus etc.]). The soft fruit sector alone is worth £1.5 billion in retail value and £450 million to farm businesses per year and vital tasks such as harvesting and packing of crops needs to be completed to ensure that businesses are productive and that food security in these healthy products is guaranteed. Farming also needs to reduce its carbon emissions, limit food waste and reduce chemical use.Autonomous robots in the high value crop sector potentially provides a solution to the lack of labour and these other issues. Electrification of robots can help with carbon emissions, precision technology can reduce chemical use, and autonomous machines may replace the work normally done by a human and improve food security of these healthy foods. Such technology is approaching high technology readiness levels and is being demonstrated on farms across the world. However, there are a number of social and ethical considerations of autonomous robots - such as impact on farm employment, cybersecurity, data ownership, bad consumer perception, and lack of safety - that may present barriers to adoption. We know from the history of agricultural innovation, particularly GM crops, that some technologies can fail because they are not designed in consultation with end users and other stakeholders.It has been suggested that responsible innovation principles can help. This asks technology developers to anticipate consequences of their technology, both good and bad, include a wide range of stakeholders in development, listen to these stakeholders views and changing design or course (reflexivity), and work with policy-makers to set an institutional framework (e.g. policy instruments, laws) that can help respond to new knowledge or views. There has been little, if any, empirical work that has investigated how to operationalize responsible innovation principles in the development of autonomous robots in agriculture. This PhD sets out to explore how stakeholders can be included in the best way, ensuring that inclusion is substantive instead of tokenistic, and then investigates how user views can be used to optimize the design of autonomous robots. The aim is to help roboticists understand how to incorporate response innovation principles into the design of robots that work for all stakeholders. Methods may include a structured literature review, surveys, interactive workshops, observation, citizen juries with stakeholders plus a social media analysis of user perceptions of robots, plus interviews and observation of roboticists involved in development. You will be working alongside cutting-edge projects (e.g. Reading/Lincoln "Robot Highways" project) which is demonstrating the application of autonomous robots in farm environments. You will also have access to the smart farming facilities of the Agri-EPI Centre (see below) where state-of-the-art robotic technologies are being developed and trialed.