• Technology

• Health

• Environment

• Project Co-ordinator: Dr. rer. nat.  Michael Decker, Dipl.-Phys. 

• Contact: Dr. rer. nat. Stephan Lingner, Dipl.-Geol.

• Memorandum: T. Christaller et al.:
  Robotik. Perspektiven für menschliches Handeln in der zukünftigen Gesellschaft.
  Springer 2001 (Ethics of Science and Technology Assessment, Vol. 14)

• Duration: 02/99–12/01

• Funding: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung

• Further Information on “Robotics”

Robots have already began to occupy their first niches in the service market. Equipped with sensors, mobility and robust control, they assume tasks which would otherwise have needed to be carried out by humans. The progress made in robotics-influenced research, in areas like artificial intelligence, mechatronics and microsystem-technology represents the possibility of machines taking over tasks that were previously executed by humans alone.
The task of this group was to find suitable criteria to judge the substitution of human beings by artificial agents; only when these criteria were set could the question be answered: Is human action substitutable? To answer this question concrete recommendations for legal and financial regulations have been developed and general hints for future dealings with robots have been set.

Robotics