Special Issue on Ethics, Law, and Psychology towards Responsible Robotics for the Society

Robot technology has been expanding from closed spaces such as factories to open spaces such as homes and streets. Cleaning robots have already been introduced in many houses, and many robots for social communication with humans have been developed. Furthermore, it is envisioned that many automated vehicles will drive around cities in the near future. The spread of these robots and artificial intelligence technologies will drastically change our society and is expected to bring unprecedented affluence and well-being to people’s lives. However, there is also a concern that new social problems that have never been considered, so-called ELSI (Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues), will occur as robots begin to autonomously work close to humans. To address them, transdisciplinary debate from technological, ethical, legal, social, and scientific perspectives is required. It is now time for not only philosophers, jurists, and policy makers but also scientists and engineers to consider social implications of developing robot technology and to be responsible for the global community. This special issue aims to explore problems in social implementation of advanced robots and discuss how to solve or manage them from diverse research areas to develop truly acceptable robots.