Postgraduate Course: Ethics of Robotics and Autonomous Systems (EFIE11470)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course explores ethical challenges raised by robotics, AI, and autonomous systems, combining ethical theory with applied case studies in areas such as care, warfare, work, and surveillance. |
| Course description |
This 20-credit course provides an in-depth interdisciplinary introduction to the ethics of robotics and autonomous systems. It examines ethical challenges arising from the design, deployment, and governance of robotic and AI-driven technologies across domains such as healthcare, warfare, work, surveillance, and human-machine interaction.
Students engage with key ethical theories alongside contemporary debates in robot and AI ethics, developing skills in analysing real-world case studies. Through lectures, seminars, and workshops, students identify stakeholders, clarify value conflicts, and evaluate normative arguments concerning responsibility, harm, justice, care, and wellbeing.
The course emphasises responsible innovation and ethical governance, supporting students to translate ethical analysis into clear advisory outputs for non-specialist audiences, while reflecting on ethical disagreement and uncertainty.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - Hybrid Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute delivers many of its courses in hybrid mode. This means that you may have some online students joining sessions for this course. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities.
Students should be aware that:
- Classrooms used in this course will have additional technology in place: in some cases, students might not be able to sit in areas away from microphones or outside the field of view of all cameras.
- All presentations, and whole class discussions will be recorded (see the Lecture Recording and Virtual Classroom policies for more details).
You will need access to a personal computing device for this course. Most activities will take place in a web browser, unless otherwise stated. We recommend using a device with a screen, a physical keyboard, and internet access.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 30 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The course will be assessed by means of the following components:
1) Individual Ethical Analysis White Paper (70%)
Approx. 3,000 words. This paper will be on a selected robotics or autonomous systems case study, written for a non-specialist policy or professional audience.
Learning Outcomes Assessed by Component: 1, 2, 3, 4
2) Reflective Analytical Appendix or Essay (30%)
Approx. 1,000 words. This appendix or essay will reflect on collaborative discussion in the course of the classroom, stakeholder disagreement, and ethical reasoning development.
Learning Outcomes Assessed by Component: 3, 5 |
| Feedback |
Feedback on any formative assessment may be provided in various formats, for example, to include written, oral, video, face-to-face, whole class, or individual. The Course Organiser will decide which format is most appropriate in relation to the nature of the assessment.
Feedback on both formative and summative in-course assessed work will be provided in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course.
Feedback on the summative assessment(s) will be provided in written form via Learn, the University of Edinburgh's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
Formative Feedback Opportunity:
Formative feedback is ongoing feedback which monitors learning and is intended to improve performance in the same course, in future courses, and also beyond study.
Students will identify salient moral issues and interests in case studies through online posts. Course organisers will provide live formative feedback on these posts. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate a basic understanding of key concepts, theories, and applications in the field of robot ethics and ethics of autonomous systems, including understandings of the relationships between the concept of a robot, an AI system, an autonomous system, and a machine agent.
- Critically discuss and evaluate a variety of normative perspectives in debates about moral issues in the design, deployment and regulation of robotic and autonomous systems, across multiple domains.
- Work constructively with others to identify salient ethical issues in a case study involving robotic and autonomous systems, form questions that allow deeper investigation, and articulate the relevant moral interests of different groups and stakeholders that developers, regulators and purchasers of these systems must take into account and treat with moral care and respect.
- Produce and clearly communicate for non-specialists in a 'white paper' format a basic analysis and advisory output pertaining to a pressing challenge for ethical design or regulation of robotic/autonomous systems.
- Identify and critically evaluate the different factual assumptions, perspectives, values and moral reasons that shape different positions on key debates in the field of robot/autonomous systems ethics.
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Reading List
Automation and Future of Work:
John Danaher: Automation and the Future of the Work Ethic - YouTube. UMass Boston; 2022:1:17:29. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZEkCE3VvWI
Smids J, Nyholm S, Berkers H. Robots in the Workplace: a Threat to - or Opportunity - for Meaningful Work? Philosophy & technology. 2020;33(3):503-522. doi:10.1007/s13347-019-00377-4
Robots in Care:
Vandemeulebroucke T, Dierckx de Casterlé B, Gastmans C. Ethics of socially assistive robots in aged-care settings: a socio-historical contextualisation. Journal of medical ethics. 2020;46(2):128-136. doi:10.1136/medethics-2019-105615
Responsibility and Transparency in Autonomous Systems:
Mind the Gap: Autonomous Systems, the Responsibility Gap, and Moral Entanglement - YouTube. ACM FAccT Conference; 2022:14:00. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMZnDfgeQMs
Lin P, Abney K, Jenkins R, eds. Robot Ethics 2.0 : From Autonomous Cars to Artificial Intelligence / Edited by Patrick Lin, Ryan Jenkins, and Keith Abney. Oxford University Press; 2017. https://academic-oup-com.eux.idm.oclc.org/book/2320/chapter/142468698; Chapter 11, 'White Lies on Silver Tongues: Why Robots Need to Deceive' pp. 157172
Gabriel I, Manzini A, Keeling G, et al. The Ethics of Advanced AI Assistants. Published online 2024. doi:10.48550/arxiv.2404.16244, Chapters 1 & 20.
Asaro, Peter. "Autonomous weapons and the ethics of artificial intelligence." Ethics of Artificial Intelligence 212 (2020).
Critical Perspectives on Robots, Race and Culture:
Birhane A, Jelle van Dijk. Robot Rights? Let's Talk about Human Welfare Instead. In Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (AIES '20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 207-213. https://doi.org/10.1145/3375627.3375855
Cave S, Dihal K. The Whiteness of AI. Philosophy & technology. 2020; 33(4): 685-703. doi:10.1007/s13347-020-00415-6
Recommended Readings (Ethical Frames):
Bryson JJ. Patiency is not a virtue: the design of intelligent systems and systems of ethics. Ethics and information technology. 2018;20(1):15-26. doi:10.1007/s10676-018-9448-6
John Danaher SN. Automation, work and the achievement gap. AI and Ethics. 2021;1(3):227-237. doi:10.1007/s43681-020-00028-x
Dubber MD, Pasquale F, Das S. The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of AI. 1st ed. (Pasquale F, Dubber MD, Das S, eds.). Oxford University Press; 2020. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190067397.001.0001
Jenkins R, Purves D. Robots and Respect: A Response to Robert Sparrow. Ethics & international affairs. 2016;30(3):391-400. doi:10.1017/ S089267941600027711. Dubber MD, Pasquale F, Das S. The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of AI. 1st ed. (Pasquale F, Dubber MD, Das S, eds.). Oxford University Press; 2020. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190067397.001.0001
Jenkins R, Purves D. Robots and Respect: A Response to Robert Sparrow. Ethics & international affairs. 2016;30(3):391-400. doi:10.1017/ S0892679416000277
Sebastian Knell MR. Artificial intelligence, superefficiency and the end of work: a humanistic perspective on meaning in life. AI and Ethics.:1-11. doi:10.1007/s43681-023-00273-w
Lin Patrick. Robot Ethics The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics. (Abney K, Bekey GA, eds.). MIT Press; 2011.
Sparrow R. Robots and Respect: Assessing the Case Against Autonomous Weapon Systems. Ethics & international affairs. 2016;30(1):93-116. doi:10.1017/S0892679415000647
Vallor S. Carebots and Caregivers: Sustaining the Ethical Ideal of Care in the Twenty-First Century. Philosophy & technology. 2011;24(3):251-268. doi:10.1007/s13347-011-0015-x
Further Reading:
Lin P, Abney K, Jenkins R, eds. Robot Ethics 2.0 : From Autonomous Cars to Artificial Intelligence / Edited by Patrick Lin, Ryan Jenkins, and Keith Abney. Oxford University Press; 2017.
Darling K (Research specialist). The New Breed : How to Think about Robots / Kate Darling. Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books; 2021.
Blobel B, Ruotsalainen P, Brochhausen M, Oemig F, Uribe GA. Autonomous Systems and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Transformation to 5P Medicine - Ethical Challenges. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. 2020 Jun 16; 270:1089-1093. doi: 10.3233/SHTI200330
Coeckelbergh M. Robot Rights? Towards a Social-Relational Justification of Moral Consideration. Ethics and information technology. 2010;12(3):209-221. doi:10.1007/s10676-010-9235-5
Giubilini A, Savulescu J. The Artificial Moral Advisor. The Ideal Observer Meets Artificial Intelligence. Philosophy & technology. 2018;31(2):169-188. doi:10.1007/s13347-017-0285-z
Lin P, Abney K, Bekey GA. Robot Ethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics. (Abney K, Bekey GA, Lin P, Bekey G, Abney K, Lin P, eds.). MIT Press; 2012:1-386.
Sætra HS. Robotomorphy: Becoming our creations. AI and ethics. 2022;2(1):5-13. doi:10.1007/s43681-021-00092-x
Poulsen A, Anderson M, Anderson SL, et al. Responses to a Critique of Artificial Moral Agents. Published online 2019. doi:10.48550/arxiv.1903.07021
Robbins-van Wynsberghe AL, Robbins SA. Critiquing the Reasons for Making Artificial Moral Agents. Science and engineering ethics. 2019;25(3):719-735. doi:10.1007/s11948-018-0030-8
Vallor S. Moral Deskilling and Upskilling in a New Machine Age: Reflections on the Ambiguous Future of Character. Philosophy & technology. 2015;28(1):107-124. doi:10.1007/s13347-014-0156-9
Wallach W. Moral Machines : Teaching Robots Right from Wrong / Wendell Wallach, Colin Allen. First O.U.P. paperback edition. (Allen C, ed.). Oxford University Press; 2010. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Robot Ethics,Robotics,Autonomous Agents,Artificial Intelligence,Human Rights,Capabilities |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Cristina Richie
Tel:
Email: crichie2@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Yasmine Lewis
Tel:
Email: yasmine.lewis@ed.ac.uk |
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