Toward a General Logicist Methodology for Engineering Ethically Correct Robots

As intelligent machines assume an increasingly prominent role in our lives, there seems little doubt they eventually be called on to make important, ethically charged decisions. We think formal logic offers a way to preclude doomsday scenarios of malicious robots taking over the world. Faced with the challenge of engineering ethically correct robots, we propose a logic-based approach. We´ve successfully implemented and demonstrated this approach. We present it in a general methodology to answer the ethical questions that arise in entrusting robots with more and more of our welfare. A deontic logic formalizes a moral code, allowing ethicists to render theories and dilemmas in declarative form for analysis. It offers a way for human overseers to constrain robot behavior in ethically sensitive environments