Collaboratively working towards ontology-based standards for robotics and automation

Day by day, new machines and systems are being developed to help and assist humans in a myriad of activities. Future robotic systems need to work in teams and communicate with humans and other robots to share information and coordinate activities. In particular, there is an increasing demand from government agencies and the private sector alike to use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs), Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs), and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) for tasks including homeland security, reconnaissance, search and rescue, surveillance, data collection, and urban planning. As these systems will interact with humans in several scenarios, it is urgent to discuss the ethical aspects in their development related to, for instance, accountability, privacy and data protection, alignment to human values in both design and function. Ontology-based models for this domain would enable, for example, a clear communication among different stakeholders, the formulations of laws, the building of AI-based and Robotics systems with full alignment with what stakeholders expect, in terms of benefits and increase of human well-being.