Capability caution in UAV design

Concerns about the impact unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will have on society is growing, making the consideration of ethics in UAV design urgent. Privacy, safety, and security are widely discussed, but engineers have few tools to address these and other ethical issues in their designs. This paper contributes by helping to bridge the gap between ethical theory and design practice. To do so, the concept of capability caution in UAV design is introduced. Capability caution in UAV design is the need for setting well-reasoned limits to the technology's capabilities during the design phase, both to limit risks of misuse, but also to enhance performance within the specified application. Five capability caution design principles are developed which should be considered: 1. context of use 2. privacy 3. jobs and human skills 4. safety, security, and misuse, and 5. the future. A Danish healthcare UAV that has been designed using the capability caution design principles is presented to illustrate the approach.