2nd ICRA 2026 Workshop on Robot Ethics

Contributions are welcome 

We are witnessing the transition of robots from labs to publicly accessible spaces where they interact more with a diverse range of people in different contexts. This requires an increased focus on Human-Robot-Interaction, raising inherent ethical and legal issues. The workshop will enable participants to better understand the impact of different assessments and potential measures concerning robot ethics on design and deployment. Gaining insight into current regulations, standards and initiatives addressing ethical and legal issues will benefit both researchers and developers. That is by considering how these can open new directions in robotics and automation research.

Being able to employ measures to address the implications and issues is vital to making robots more acceptable and trustworthy, and fundamental for responsible research and innovation. The workshop will cover key aspects through concrete examples from ongoing research projects, and applied work on legal considerations, development of relevant standards, universal design principles and more. This will be from an international perspective, with speakers representing the global north and south and with emphasis on gender, cultural and ethnic diversity. 

There is no specific prerequisite knowledge required on ethics, legal, and social issues (ELSI). Thus, the workshop will target all attendees of the ICRA 2026 conference.

The authors of the accepted full papers will be invited to submit an extended version for a tentative chapter in a book (pending). The papers would be peer-reviewed as regular journal papers.  One or more summaries of selected topics covered at the workshop will be submitted as an opinion or comment article to a journal.

The main objective of the workshop is to raise awareness, prompt debate and share knowledge about ethical, legal and user/social perspectives for robot assistants operating in personal and public environments with humans.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, including robots, pose challenges and opportunities for health- and home care. Amongst the relevant and essential aspects currently discussed are privacy, cybersecurity, safety, diversity, and inclusion considerations. There is increasing attention on the ethical implications and legal issues related to robots and systems. Recently, the European Commission has approved the regulations on Artificial Intelligence, e.g., the Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA), and the New Machinery Directive (MD). The AIA is the first of this kind in the world and will highly impact AI-based systems, including intelligent robots and other software that will be used, developed, or imported to Europe. Therefore, the AIA will contain key requirements for a global market for robots and AI systems. 

Other important ongoing efforts are defining standards for intelligent systems and studying design with user participation. It is important to determine what legal frameworks need to be followed to ensure user safety in highly robotic environments. The workshop will provide an overview of the most pressing ethical and legal challenges surrounding the development and use of robots in human environments. 

The workshop aims to raise awareness about these topics and engage with the community to think about mitigating risks and ways to reduce the unfavorable impact on society. The workshop will illustrate the challenges related to privacy, security, safety, and diversity of users through several examples.