RO-MAN 2021 (IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication) is coming soon, from 8 to 12 August 2021, and we are taking part in the conference once again, this year as silver sponsors. RO-MAN 2021 (this year taking place virtually) is a key event in the community of Robot & Human technologies, which we at PAL Robotics are committed to contributing to. RO-MAN this year celebrates its 30th anniversary. This annual academic conference was launched in 1992 in Tokyo, Japan and is sponsored by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. RO-MAN 2021 is being organised by the University of British Columbia and the University of Waterloo, Canada.

Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics were first introduced in the short science fiction story Runaround, (PDF) published in the March, 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. Fast-forward almost 80 years into the present, today, Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics represent more problems and conflict to roboticists than they solve. Roboticists, philosophers, and engineers are seeing an ongoing debate on machine ethics. Machine ethics is a practical proposal on how to simultaneously engineer and provide ethical sanctions for robots. Who or what is going to be held responsible when or if an autonomous system malfunctions or harms humans?

Roboethics or machine ethics deals with the code of conduct that robotic designer engineers must implement in the Artificial Intelligence of a robot.