Japan Drafts Guidelines for Safe Use of Robots

Posted 6 Apr 2007 at 21:20 UTC by steve

Japan is following the lead of other countries and drafting guidelines for a future filled with robots. According to a TimesOnline article a document, titled Draft Guidelines to Secure the Safe Performance of Next Generation Robots, was developed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. Like the recent South Korean Robot Ethics Charter, the Japanese document seems primarily concerned with regulating how humans can and cannot use robots. This is in contrast to the UK Robot Rights Plan which is concerned with the ethical problems that may result from conscious robots being treated as servants without rights.