Service robots, care ethics, and design
This academic paper proposes extending the Care Centered Value Sensitive Design (CCVSD) approach from healthcare settings to personal and professional service robots across other domains. It argues that CCVSD can be applied outside of healthcare when a service robot is integrated into a care practice that meets two conditions: being a response to needs and involving reciprocal interaction. The author establishes a framework for evaluating how service robots impact human relationships, roles, responsibilities, and care values.
Summary and content fields are drawn from the document text and are pending editorial review.
Who issued it
Who it governs
Robot designers, ethicists, and researchers looking for a systematic approach to incorporate and evaluate ethics in service robot development.
What the document contains
The paper covers the expansion of the Care Centered Value Sensitive Design (CCVSD) framework to evaluate personal and professional service robots. It outlines the two necessary conditions of care practices (response to needs and reciprocal interaction) and categorizes different robot integration scenarios.
The text does not provide an exhaustive evaluation of specific service robots or concrete legal regulations and enforcement mechanisms.
- The Care Centered Value Sensitive Design (CCVSD) approach, originally for healthcare, can be evaluated for personal and professional service robots in other sectors.
- A practice can be evaluated using CCVSD if it meets two necessary conditions: being a response to needs and involving a reciprocal interaction with intentionality.
- Service robots introduce ethical questions regarding their impact on human roles, responsibilities, relationships, and moral character development.
- Integration of robots into care practices can result in varying scenarios, ranging from unaffected human reciprocity to the robot acting as a reciprocal partner.
· Introduction · Service robots: what and why? · The care centered value sensitive design approach · The ethics of the CCVSD approach · The applicability of the CCVSD approach outside of healthcare · Enter the robot · Evaluating and designing service robots using CCVSD · Conclusion
How it scores
Each score is backed by a quote verified against the document text. Editorial review has not yet confirmed them.
Accountability
2/5Clear responsibility for AI outcomes
There are fundamental issues such as: robot responsibility (Lokhorst and van den Hoven 2011; Sullins 2011;W . Wallach 2010), human responsibility (Allen and Wallach 2011; Asaro 2006; Wallach and Allen 2008), liability (Asaro 2011)
Service robots: what and why?
screening score · 2026-10-24
Fairness
0/5Non-discrimination and equitable treatment
n/a
screening score · 2026-10-24
Human Dignity
2/5Respect for the inherent worth of persons
the ethical dimension of the robot, its goodness or badness, is not entirely based on how it may increase efficiency (i.e. consequence driven) or protect the privacy of users (i.e. duty driven) but also on how it will impact the ethical character development of users (e.g. will it have a long term effect of causing users to objectify other humans?)
The ethics of the CCVSD approach
screening score · 2026-10-24
Human Oversight
1/5Humans remain in control of consequential decisions
degrees of autonomy (e.g. amount of input from a human operator for the robot to fulfill its task)
Service robots: what and why?
screening score · 2026-10-24
Privacy
2/5Protection of personal data and private life
There are also more applied ethical issues such as the potential impact on: privacy (Calo 2011; Denning et al. 2009), security (Den- ning et al. 2009), and so on.
Service robots: what and why?
screening score · 2026-10-24
Transparency
0/5Openness about how AI systems work and are used
n/a
screening score · 2026-10-24
Enforcement
0/5Consequences and compliance mechanisms with real force
n/a
screening score · 2026-10-24
Impact Assessment
3/5Required assessment of an AI system's risks/impacts before or during use
the aim of this paper is to present a preliminary study of how personal and professional service robots might also be evaluated using the CCVSD approach.
Abstract
screening score · 2026-10-24