The Future of Legal and Ethical Regulations for Autonomous Robotics

“Autonomous robotics” promise significant improvements across a host of different complex systems, which will need to be managed within regulatory frameworks to promote, at a minimum, device safety. Contrary to how they are often portrayed, however, these systems do not necessarily require fundamentally new approaches to engineering or regulatory challenges, i.e., the development of a novel “autonomy framework” applicable to different types of devices. Rather, because autonomous systems generally represent a progressive improvement of existing complex systems, preexisting regulatory scheme offer the best guidance for considering future regulation of autonomous elements. Moreover, the regulatory landscape differs considerably based on the type of device at issue (e.g., consumer electronics vis-à-vis medical devices).’ This talk argues that users and regulators must consider future autonomy regulations within the specific framework those devices currently inhabit, rather than focusing on a novel set of rules divorced from the preexisting context.