TRUST IN ROBOTS

TRUST IN ROBOTS

ROBOTICS

Honesty, responsibility and accountability in all facets of research and university education are the foundations of society’s faith in science and technology. These principles serve as the foundation for academic independence and the highest ethical and integrity standards. Therefore, “Technology for People” is the university’s mission statement. We want to transform what is technologically feasible into what is desirable from a human-centered perspective. Innovative goods, services and procedures ought to make the world a better place to live in terms of compassion and social responsibility. TU Wien has made significant financial investments in multidisciplinary research carried out in doctoral colleges to address urgent societal concerns to further this purpose and uphold the highest standards of science and ethics. The doctoral college “Trust in Robots”, led by Sabine Koeszegi & Markus Vincze, was established in 2018 to understand how we can build disruptive robotic and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that people trust. Robotics and AI have the potential to help us overcome several problems, including the aging population crisis and climate catastrophe. The doctoral college “Trust in Robots” addresses this area of friction and bargains over the compatibility of technology and moral principles. “Trust in Robots” has been set up as a transdisciplinary doctoral college in which postgraduate students and professors of various academic disciplines collaborate to understand the same phenomenon from different perspectives. From an institutional standpoint, the College’s setup has been difficult because the systems and policies currently in place are not appropriate for admitting students with different academic backgrounds into the same study program for transdisciplinary research. However, the success of this doctoral college proves that this is how we must perform research in the future to overcome the existing silos of disciplines. The college has inspired certain changes that have been implemented in the Doctoral School of TU Wien and can serve as a model for future research projects. The introduction of the lecture “Responsible Research” for all doctoral students at TU Wien is one of the Trust Robots Doctoral College’s most important accomplishments from our perspective. In this lecture, we consider ethical standards and the societal effects of innovation and science while preparing our students with morally sound design and trustworthy research techniques. The doctoral college “Trust in Robots” is an unqualified success for TU Wien. The results of a four-year project at TU Wien are summarized in the twelve chapters of this book, which we are happy to release to the public.

Sabine T. Koeszegi;
Markus Vincze

https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/60480

Academic Press

2022

Pdf

English

TextBooks

doi.org/10.34727/2022/isbn.978-3-85448-052-5