Experimental and Integrative Approaches to Robo-ethics. An Introduction

The development and diffusion of social robots are raising several ethical and legal concerns. Traditional approaches to robo-ethics have relied in the past primarily on philosophical analysis to address these issues. However, there is a growing recognition that experimental and integrative approaches are also needed. The aim of this paper and this issue is to discuss the potentialities, limits, and methods of this new direction, with a specific focus on the role that experiments can play in addressing ethical and legal issues concerning (social) Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). The ultimate goal is to initiate the formation of an interdisciplinary research community engaged in the development of a well-defined research line in experimental and integrative robo-ethics.