Engineering ethical behaviors in autonomous industrial cyber-physical human systems

Abstract

This paper addresses the engineering of the ethical behaviors of autonomous industrial cyber-physical human systems in the context of Industry 4.0. An ethical controller is proposed to be embedded into these autonomous systems, to enable their successful integration in the society and its norms. This proposed controller that integrates machine ethics is realized through three main strategies that utilize two ethical paradigms, namely deontology, and consequentialism. These strategies are triggered according to the type of event sensed and the state of the autonomous industrial cyber-physical human systems, their combination being potentially unknown or posing ethical dilemmas. Two case studies are investigated, that deal with a fire emergency, and two different contexts i.e. one with an autonomous train, and one with an autonomous industrial plant, are discussed to illustrate the controller utilization. The case studies demonstrate the potential benefits and exemplify the need to integrate ethical behaviors in autonomous industrial cyber-physical human systems already at the design phase. The proposed approach, use cases, and discussions make evident the need to address ethical aspects in new efforts to engineer industrial systems in the context of Industry 4.0.