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Not the Law's First Rodeo: Towards regulating trustworthy collaborative industrial embodied autonomous systems

Published: 16 September 2024 Publication History

Abstract

Does the law stifle technology adoption? At the surface, it may appear to be that there is a regulatory gap and, therefore, such uncertainty can hinder the development and deployment of collaborative industrial embodied autonomous systems (Cobots). Cobots are a class of robots which, unlike other forms of industrial robots, have seemingly introduced new legal challenges due to the direct human-robot collaboration factor. In this paper, to shed light on the above, we investigate the gap in the applicability of the current legal frameworks to this technology from the UK and EU regulatory approaches. We argue that the current law is applicable in regulating this technology given the state of the art. We discuss implications for the regulation to enhance trust and responsible future adoption of Cobots.

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cover image ACM Other conferences
TAS '24: Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems
September 2024
335 pages
ISBN:9798400709890
DOI:10.1145/3686038
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 16 September 2024

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Author Tags

  1. Embodied Autonomous Systems
  2. HRI
  3. Human-Robot Collaboration
  4. Law
  5. Regulation
  6. Responsible Innovation
  7. Technology
  8. Trust

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  • Refereed limited

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  • UK Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub
  • Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training at the University of Nottingham

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