Last December I first made a post about the upcoming IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine(RAM) call for papers for the special issue on  roboethics.

Well, the deadline for the paper submission is approaching quickly, and hence, it’s worth posting again.

When is the deadline? It’s September 1st 2010.

This is opportunity is really exciting because the IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine is not just any magazine that gets mailed to people’s houses once in a while just to be thrown out months later.

IEEE is one of the largest, if not the largest, engineering association, and almost all members in the field of robotics and automation receive a copy of the association’s Robotics and Automation Magazine – hence, the magazine’s readership covers a relatively large and key engineering population for the field of roboethics.

The guest editors for this issue includes Drs. Gianmarco Veruggio, Mike Van der Loos, and Jorge Solis from Italy, Canada, and Japan respectively.

For your convenience, I’ve copied the call for papers information here. But for more information, please visit the official CFP page.

Introduction

Robotics research is increasingly raising ethical implications related to the emerging interactions between robots and human beings. Roboethics deals with the ethical aspects of the design, development and employment of intelligent machines. It shares many “sensitive areas” with computer ethics, information ethics and bioethics. Progress in the field of computer science and telecommunications allows us to endow machines with enough intelligence so that they may act autonomously. Therefore, we can forecast that in the twenty-first century humanity will coexist with the first alien intelligence we have ever come in contact with – robots. However; as the application field for robots is widening, and the robot is coming out of the factory halls, new challenges are seen, and even a change of paradigm is taking shape. Not only roboticists, but also sociologists, psychologists and philosophers are discussing the potentialities and the limits of these intelligent machines in relation to human beings.

Scope, description and more information

Original and unpublished high-quality research results are solicited to explore and boost the new areas relevant to Roboethics. Contributions are welcome on the ethical, legal and societal aspects of the following topics (but not limited to):
•    Economy (Replacing humans in the workplace; Robotics and the job market)
•    Psychology (Position of humans in the control hierarchy; Robots and children)
•    Law (Robots and liability; Deployment of autonomously acting robots)
•    Health (Robotics in surgery; Robotics in health care, assistance, prosthetics and therapy)
•    Military application of robotics (Acceptability, Advantages and Risks, Codes)
•    Environment (Underwater robotics noise pollution; Cleaning nuclear and toxic waste)
•    Service (Social robotics, Personal assistants, Companions)
•    Technical Dependability (Availability; Reliability; Safety; Security)

Important dates
Call for papers	December 04, 2009
Deadline for paper submission	September 01, 2010
First review	October 15, 2010
Final review	December 01, 2010
Publication	March 2011