Drafting a Robot Manifesto – New Insights from the Robotics Community gathered at the European Robotics Forum 2018

The world is discussing the impact of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Automation. Their potentially disruptive power stokes excitement in press and media, awareness and fear in the civil society, populism with influencers and activism in politics. While some claim the decay of humanity, others predict the loss of all jobs and further groups yearn for utopian scenarios in which all wealth will be redistributed and humankind can bloom in a workless society driven by cultural and intellectual progress based on universal basic income. The future is unpredictable. Nevertheless, the discussion about how to handle the evolution of disruptive technologies is crucial and overdue. Interdisciplinary, stakeholder driven discourse must be sparked, (Robotic & AI) Governance frameworks must be established and an ethical Code of Conduct - a Robot Manifesto - has to be established. At the European Robotics Forum (ERF) 2018, an initial effort was taken to engage the European robotics community and discuss first steps towards a Robot Manifesto in a workshop with roboticist. This paper outlines the underlying concepts and sums up the findings of this workshop.