Ethical Mission Definition and Execution for Maritime Robots Under Human Supervision

Experts and practitioners have worked long and hard toward achieving functionally capable robots. While numerous areas of progress have been achieved, ethical control of unmanned systems meeting legal requirements has been elusive and problematic. Common conclusions that treat ethical robots as an always-amoral philosophical conundrum requiring undemonstrated morality-based artificial intelligence are simply not sensible or repeatable. Patterning after successful practice by human teams shows that precise mission definition and task execution using well-defined, syntactically valid vocabularies is a necessary first step. Addition of operational constraints enables humans to place limits on robot activities, even when operating at a distance under gapped communications. Semantic validation can then be provided by a Mission Execution Ontology to confirm that no logical or legal contradictions are present in mission orders. Thorough simulation, testing, and certification of qualified robot responses are necessary to build human authority and trust when directing ethical robot operations at a distance. Together these capabilities can provide safeguards for autonomous robots possessing the potential for lethal force. This approach appears to have broad usefulness for both civil and military application of unmanned systems at sea.