Responsible use of agile robots in public spaces

Abstract

In late 2019, a quadruped agile robot, named Spot, was introduced by the robotics company Boston Dynamics for lease to the public. Spot found quick commercial success and social media fame with its sophisticated computer vision enabled inspection and environmental data collection capacity as well as its hypermobility. Spot was also leased by non-commercial organizations such as metropolitan police departments that integrated Spot into various aspects of their operations. Civil rights groups have criticized these deployments of Spot into public spaces based on its potential weaponization and its repeated use in poor and marginalized communities. Law enforcement organizations have responded to the conflict over their use of Spot in a variety of ways. This paper examines the issues raised by the increased use of agile robots through a combination of case studies and ethical design frameworks. We argue that while it may be too late to completely prohibit the use of this technology in public spaces, it is imperative that different stakeholder groups (i.e. technologists, policy makers, ethicists, etc.) must come together now to lay the groundwork for the responsible design, development, and deployment of agile robots. Several models for proactive computing ethics work are presented for stakeholder engagement around complex public safety, security, and equity concerns.