A Treatise on Good Robots [Hardcover]

This volume investigates the ways emerging technologies in the fields of robotics and bio-robotics are influencing society. It necessarily considers both philosophical and technological study of robots, including what it means for robots to exist as good and moral entities, and how they benefit humans and enhance their quality of life. Contributors address artificial intelligence and social functions as well as technical matters.

Chapters are wide-ranging, and consider robots in science fiction; the need for designers to create moral robots; specific technology; and the development of biological robots. Also addressed are robotic technologies already enhancing human bodies, such as exoskeletons that allow paraplegics to walk.

The contributors foresee robots becoming involved not only in mundane domestic tasks such as washing dishes, but also in providing health care to the disabled and companionship to the elderly. This volume offers exciting philosophical reflections that unveil new connections between robotics and praxiology and their practical applications.

Editorial - Wojciech W. Gasparski

Introduction - Krzysztof Tchon

Part One: Good RobotsHuman Perspective

How Good Robots Will Enhance Human Life - Kevin Warwick, Huma Shah, Anton Vedder,
Elettra Stradella, and Pericle Salvini
The Good Assistive Robot for Elder Care - Cristina Urdiales, Roberta Annicchiarico, and
Ulises Cortes
Unorthodox Thoughts about Good Robots Viewed Pragmatically and Praxiologically -
Zbigniew J. Gackowski

Part Two: Good RobotsA Technological Perspective

Towards Application-Oriented Navigation - Adam Borkowski
Locomotion Mode Transition Control of a Multi-Locomotion Robot - Toshio Fukuda,
Kosuke Sekiyama, Tadayoshi Aoyama, Yasuhisa Hasegawa, and Qiang Huang
Maintenance Robot: A History and Reflections of a Japanese Engineering ScientistlcÅ