Robot Self-defense: Robots Can Use Force on Human Attackers to Defend Victims

Could a social robot use force to prevent violence directed toward humans in its care?–Might crime be eradicated, or conversely could excessive use of force proliferate and human dignity become trampled beneath cold robotic wheels? Such speculation is one part of a larger, increasingly important question of how social robots will be expected to behave in our societies, as robotic technologies develop and become increasingly widespread. Here, to gain some insight into this topic of "robot self-defense", we proposed a simplified heuristic based on perceived risk of loss to predict acceptability, and conducted a user survey with 304 participants, who watched eight animated videos of robots and humans in a violent altercation. The results indicated that people largely accept the idea that a humanoid robot can use force on attackers to help others. Furthermore, self-defense was perceived as more acceptable when the appearance of the defender was humanoid rather than mechanical, and when the force disparity between attacker and defender was high. The immediate suggestion is that it could be beneficial to re-examine common assumptions that a robot should never harm or risk harming humans, and to discuss and consider the possibilities for robot self-defense.