This position paper highlights an ethic of machine-to-machine cooperation and machine pro-sociality, and argues that machines capable of autonomous sensing, decision-making and action, such as automated vehicles and urban robots, owned and used by different self-interested parties, and having their own agendas (or interests of their owners) should be designed and built to be cooperative in their behaviours, especially if they share public spaces. That is, by design, the machine should first cooperate, and then only consider alternatives if there are problems. It is argued that being cooperative is not only important for their improved functioning, especially, when they use shared resources (e.g., parking spaces, public roads, curbside space and walkways), but also as a favourable requirement analogous to how humans cooperating with other humans can be advantageous and often viewed favourably. The usefulness of such machine-to-machine cooperation are illustrated via examples including cooperative crowdsourcing, cooperative traffic routing and parking as well as futuristic scenarios involving urban robots for delivery and shopping. It is argued that just as privacy-by-design and security-by-design are important considerations, in order to yield systems that fulfil ethical requirements, cooperative-by-design should also be an imperative for autonomous systems that are separately owned but co-inhabit the same spaces and use common resources. If a machine using shared public spaces is not cooperative, as one might expect, then it is not only anti-social but not behaving ethically. It is also proposed that certification for urban robots that operate in public could be explored.

School of Information Technology, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia Robots are increasingly tested in public spaces, towards a f uture where urban environments are not only for humans but for autonomous syst ems. While robots are promising, for convenience and efficiency, there are challenges associated with building cities crowded with machines. This p aper provides an overview of the problems and some solutions, and calls for gr eater attention on this matter . Urban environments will increasingly be spaces for autonom ous systems, of which automated vehicles is only one popular type. Robot wheelchairs could be used in public as well other robot -transporters to help the elderly.

The robot exhibition had a very successful 1998. At the conference, we had 11 robot demonstrations (including three multirobot demos), 5 oral presentations, and an additional 5 video or poster submissions. The exhibition also included a published video proceedings for the first time. One of the most interesting features of the exhibition was the variety of capabilities shown. From a mechanical point of view, indoor wheeled robots were, as usual, the most common form of robot, but the exhibit also featured several outdoor wheeled robots, several legged robots, two humanoids, a snake, and a plant. From a software perspective, the exhibit featured general-purpose robot-control software, vision, teleoperation, language learning, teamwork and expression of emotion. A significant number of entries addressed the important, emerging research area of robot-human interaction, both for entertainment purposes and ease of use.