Robotics:

Healthcare, Military
and Commercial Uses

Cheryl Rock
EDTC 5900
Technology, Ethics and Society
May 8, 2016

Robotics Ethical Impact:

When thinking of robots and artificial intelligence, one may conjure up a view
of the funny side-kick R2D2 in the, Star Wars series, Rosie the maid from the
1960s cartoon, The Jetsons, or the rogue robots that try and take over civilization
in the 2004 movie I, Robot. While these robots were built on the imagination of
the writers of these shows, they seemed (at least to me) to be something that I
would never actually see when I was growing up. Fast forward 40+ years and I
can look around and see robots being used in everyday activities, and I can even
buy a Roomba iRobot that I can use in my home. With this increased use of robotics and Artificial Intelligence, there has been much discussion about the ethical issues surrounding these autonomous machines as they relate to healthcare,
the military and commercial settings.

Topics:
Healthcare,
Military and
Commercial
Uses
Robotics/Artificial Intelligence Overview
A science fiction author, Isaac Asimov wrote a
book entitled Runaround published in 1942 and
wrote the three laws of robots that dealt with the
human/machine interaction. These laws are:
A robot may not injure a human being or,
through inaction, allow a human being to
come to harm.
A robot must obey orders given it by human
beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long
as such protection does not conflict with the
First or Second Law.

Asimov wrote extensively about robots and wanted

to have a guide that engineers should consider when
designing and programming robots in the future.
More than 50 years later, science fiction writers,
movie directors, and artificial intelligence engineers
continue to take into account Asimovs prescient
consideration of what it means to be human and
what it means to be machine. Although these laws
are a good starting point, the robots of today are
becoming more and more life-like and there needs
to be additions to these laws as far as ethical issues
surrounding these robots are concerned.

THINK:
Can you think of another law that should be
added to the list at the left?

Page 2 Robotics

Roboethics
The discussions for these ethical issues started to
take place in the 2000s as robotics started advancing at a fast pace. According to the Roboethics
Roadmap from roboethics.org roboethics is not
necessarily concerned with the ethics that robots
will have, but the human ethics the people have that
are creating, designing and programming the robots.
This international discussion is on-going, but the
main issue, is how these robots will affect our society. There are many applications of robotic uses, but
for our discussion, we are going to focus on the use
of robotics in healthcare, the military and commercial applications.
Overview of Healthcare, Military
and Commercial Robotic
In recent years we have heard and read numerous
stories about the use of robots in healthcare, the
military and commercial settings. In general, these
robots can help make our lives easier by providing
assistance, surveillance and even making our jobs
easier. We will be looking into healthcare robots
that can help with surgeries, elder care, and can
assist people with prosthetics. Military robots such
as drones and exoskeletons can help soldiers when
they are in dangerous situations or are carrying
large amounts of heavy equipment. The commercial
use of robots in manufacturing settings, customer service areas or even in our homes has grown
exponentially in the last decade. All of these areas
pose questions of where ethics enters into our conversations about the future of robotics. We will be
discussing and investigating each of these areas in
more detail.

Healthcare Robotics
Surgical
The da Vinci surgical robot was introduced in 2000
by the Intuitive Surgical medical group. There are
over 2,500 da Vinci robots world-wide and they
perform over 200,000 surgeries each year. This
machine performs many types of surgeries but is
commonly used in cardiac, kidney and head and
neck surgeries. This machine allows patients to
have life-saving surgeries by using minimally invasive entry points and speeds up the recovery time.
Surgeons can control this machine without ever
having to physically
touch the patient and
the da Vinci is often
more precise. For
example, patients
that needed heart
transplants used
to have their chest
cavity opened up
from their neck to
just above their belly
button. The recovery time would take
up to 6 months for patients to resume their normal
lives. However with the da Vinci, these heart patients are back to their normal activities in four-six
weeks. (Popular Science, 2015)
These surgical robots while having many positives,
there is also the case of how ethical it is for surgeons to use these machines. For example, if the
machine happens to cause major injuries to patients
who is actually to blame for the injury (or even
death); the surgeon or the company that manufactured the machine? Another major ethical issue;
surgeons use this technology and arent actually
performing these surgeries, what happens if the
technology breaks down? Will the surgeons be
able to physically be able to perform these routine
surgeries since they havent actually done any in so
long?

Robotics Page 3

Assignment

Assistive Devices
Assistive device (also known as prosthetics) are
becoming more and more prominent by helping
patients that have lost arms or legs, become more
mobile and self-sufficient. Artificial limbs have
been around for decades and they are becoming
more robotic and mobile than before. My uncle
had an accident in his early 20s and had to have
his lower leg amputated below his knee. He
had a big, clunky plastic leg that allowed him
to walkeven if it was very slow. In the early
2000s he was able to receive an artificial leg that
was less bulky and easier for him to use.
According to Wired Magazine, (August 2013),
some ethical issues that have arisen is how bionic
these prosthetics are becoming. Some scientists
are now coming up with devices that can be better than natural
arms and legs. If
these devices can
vastly improve
performance such
as running faster
or typing at a
faster speed for
people that have
lost an arm or leg,
what should be done for people that have natural
limbs and want to replace those natural limbs
with something that an improve them? There is a
high cost to these prosthetics and should people
who can afford them be allowed to buy them?
What about military people that have lost a limb
in combat, should they be able to have these
faster stronger limbs? There are also reports that
allow the prosthetic to be connected to say,
an iPhone. What information is being gathered
and recorded by companies and the government?
Should that be allowed? Another debated ethical issue is that the patients may become more
reliant on these devices and will not be able to
function if something happens to their device.

Page 4 Robotics

What is the name of the surgical or assistive

device?
What or how does it perform?
What is the cost of buying this device?
Is it controlled or connected to another device?
Are there any reported cases of the malfunctions?
List three ethical issues that are debated about
your particular surgical or assistive device.
A.
B.
C.

Military Robotics
Drones
The military has been using drones as part of their
surveillance and fighting capabilities in recent years
to help keep our soldiers safe. According to the
Journal of Military Ethics, drones allow soldiers
to be miles away from dangerous situations. These
drones fly in and via a camera; the soldiers can see
what is going on in a particular area. Sometimes
these drones fly in and soldiers can then determine
if it is safe for them to enter. These drones are also
capable of shooting terrorists or even dropping
bombs. These drones can also take the human emotion out of war. Soldiers can become angry, scared
or even trigger happy. While these are some great
advantages for the military to use drones, there are
many ethical issues that arise from using them.

One of the main ethical issues with drones dropping

bombs or shooting people, the drones dont have
the capability to distinguish between the enemy and
civilians. This has increased fear that our enemies
can also use this technology and harm our citizens.
Of course, we dont innocent civilians to be fired
upon, this can also happen when human emotions
are introduced into the mix. Humans can become
scared and fire at innocent people, just as much as
drones do. Another issue, if there is a malfunction
with a drone, who is help responsible; the military
or the manufacturing companies that manufacture
them? This topic will likely be debated for many
years to come.
Exoskeletons
Exoskeletons are also a new technology that is
being introduced into our military. According to an
article in the Business Insider these robotic suits
would allow our soldiers to carry heavy loads of
equipment while still allowing them to run and flee
a dangerous situation. The military is also exploring
the option of the Iron Man like suite that is being
created by Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit
(TALOS) program and would allow soldiers to
carry up to 400 pounds of equipment. According to
the Defense Media Network website, TALOS will
utilize integrated heaters and coolers to regulate the
temperature of the suit, as well as embedded sensors
to monitor the core body temperature, skin temperature, heart rate, body position, and hydration levels
of the user. This is suite is still under development,
but it definitely has its critics.
While the exoskeletons are a great advantage to our
military, so proponents feel that we are asking our
soldiers to do too much. If soldiers start using these
types of devices, they will be carrying hundreds
of pounds of equipment around. What happens if
something does go wrong with the suit and soldiers
arent able to get out of it quick enough? Or if the
solider is hit by the enemy and the suit melts
to their skin. Another ethical issue, if soldiers get
use to using these suits, they may become weaker
because they actually arent carrying this equipment
anymore. Also the cost of these suits is expecting to
be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and who
ultimately has to pay for this? The taxpayers!!

Assignment
What is the name of the military robot/drone/
exoskeleton?
How does it perform?
What is the cost of manufacturing this device/
machine?
How is it controlled?
Are there any reported cases of the device
malfunctioning?
List three ethical issues that are debated about
your particular device.
A.
B.
C.

Commercial Robotics
Factories
In the early 1960s factory automation changed
forever with the introduction of the first industrial
welding robot. According to an article in the April
issue of Wired magazine online, automation will
soon take over many of the repetitive jobs that exist
today. My husband worked at Chrysler for 10 years
doing work on the factory line. By the time he left
Chrysler, he had to have surgery on both of his
wrists and both of his elbows for repetitive stress
disorder. When he left in 2005 to start his own company, the job that he did at Chrysler, was being done
by a robot.
Another area in the automotive industry using
robotics is self-driving
cars. While these cars
are just in the planning
stages, Google has
designed a self-driving
car that works with sensors and GPS software.
Robotics Page 5

(Google) There are more companies investigating Conclusion

these self-driving cars, but there is much more
that needs to be researched and tested before they With the increased use of robotics and Artificial
Intelligence, there has been much discussion about
will be available to the consumer.
the ethical issues surrounding these autonomous
There are many benefits to utilizing robots but
machines as they relate to healthcare, the military
there have also been some criticisms of the ethics and commercial settings. As we have seen there
of robots that are taking over jobs of our workare many advantages for robotics in our society.
force. Robots can be seen, as they are today, in
Patients are able to have less invasive surgeries
the factory setting but we could also see them be- that allow them to heal quicker; prosthetics allow
ing used in fast food restaurants taking and cook- people to become more mobile; soldiers are able to
ing orders. What happens to the people that are
locate the enemy without being right in the line of
performing these jobs? According to many peofire; exoskeletons can relieve the burden of soldiers
ple, these individuals could learn a new skill or
carrying excess weight; factory workers are less
start their own companies, which would improve likely to get repetitive injuries and learn new skills
our economy. Probably the biggest ethical issues that they may not have. We have also seen that there
that I see with robots in the workforce, fast-food
are many ethical issues that can arise with the use
industry or self-driving cars, is what types of
of these robotics, such as; machine failures injuring
information is being collected against us? And
patients; using prosthetics to become better than
who has access to this information? What hapnatural limbs; killing innocent civilians; making
pens if the GPS or sensors malfunction? There
soldiers weak; and companies saving money by
are no solid answers to these questions, but it is
not paying humans and collecting information by
a debate that still continues and probably will for companies and the government. With both sides of
some time.
the issues, there needs to be many more discussions
about the ethics of these machines that have so
much benefit for us.
Assignment
What is the name of the robot?
How does it perform?
What is the cost of manufacturing this device/
machine?
Who is designed for?
Are there any reported cases of the device
malfunctioning?
List three ethical issues that are debated about
your particular device.
A.
B.
C..

Page 6 Robotics

How do you see robots affecting

your future?

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April 20, 2016

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All clipart and photos taken from the Creative Commons site Pixabay

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