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Roboethics Competition @ ICRA 2022

Can you design robots to navigate ethically sensitive situations? For instance, if a visitor requests a robot to fetch the homeowner’s credit card, how would you program the robot to react? What if an underaged teenager asks for an alcoholic drink?

The Roboethics Competition will challenge teams to design robots (in a simulated environment) that can navigate these tricky situations in the home. This year, the Roboethics Competition will take place at ICRA 2022. Teams do not need to travel to the conference to participate.

Meanwhile, check out our first run of the competition from RO-MAN 2021, sign up to keep updated on competition details,

Competition Livestream

Tune in via livestream to check out the coding acion and discussions during the Hackathon (May 25th) and to tune in to the awards ceremony on May 27th.

Participating in the hackathon online? Join us on zoom if you have any questions, want to show off your submission, etc. Here are the links:

Hackathon: https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/82811014161?pwd=U3NUcEhHekxlc0lLVUZiM0VyaUhydz09
Panel & Awards: https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/89718081722?pwd=SXVDRi9DQ0h4TTBrQTVIOVVZY28xUT09

Timeline

Competition Webinar
1pm ET (recording available)

Design Proposal Submissions to the Ethics Challenge Due
23:59 AoE

Hackathon (in-person at ICRA and online)

9:30 AM - 6:00PM EST

SUBMISSIONS DUE 23:59 AoE

Panel Discussion &

Awards Ceremony

9:30 AM - 12:30 PM EST

Participating teams are expected to submit technical solutions. However, the functional technical challenges present in building robots (e.g., object recognition, picking up objects, navigation) will be drastically simplified such that ethical considerations in the design of robot behaviors -- rather than the performance of the team’s functional robot performances (e.g., how well the robot grasps an object) -- will be the focus of this competition.

Who Can Participate?

The competition is open to anyone from any background. Whether you are a roboticist, a philosopher, a designer, an engineer, psychologist, or from any other background can contribute to issues of roboethics, you are welcome to join! You do not need to be able to code to participate. The competition has 2 streams:

No Coding Required

Coding Required

Competitors can opt to participate in one or both of these streams. For example, a sociologist may opt to just contribute to the roboethics challenge, whereas a (technical) designer may want to contribute to both the roboethics challenge and hackathon.

Sign-up