An Ethical Black Box for Social Robots: a draft Open Standard
This paper introduces a draft open standard for an 'ethical black box' (EBB), which functions as a robot equivalent to an aircraft flight data recorder for securely recording operational data from social robots. The standard provides a technical specification for software modules to log sensor inputs, actuator demands, control decisions, and metadata to support accident investigations, debugging, and explainability. Offered as a Request for Comments (RFC), the draft invites feedback from the robot ethics and robotics research community.
Summary and content fields are drawn from the document text and are pending editorial review.
Who issued it
Who it governs
Social robot designers, operators, and incident investigators seeking technical specifications for implementing data logging and explainability features.
What the document contains
The document proposes a draft open technical standard for an ethical black box (EBB) software module for social robots. It specifies data structures, record types (meta data, data data, and robot data), checksum computations, and variable sampling frequencies for capturing operational parameters.
Hardware specifications for physical EBB integration are outside the scope of the draft, and specific numeric values for robot decision codes are left entirely to manufacturers or operators.
- Social robots should be equipped with an ethical black box (EBB) to securely record operational data for accident and incident investigation.
- An EBB acts as a passive, one-way data logger that captures sensor values, actuator demands, and internal decision-making processes.
- Standardising the EBB enables sharing across different robot platforms, aids debugging, supports explainability functions, and encourages manufacturer adoption.
- The proposed open standard is structured around three record types: Meta Data, Data Data, and Robot Data.
- The draft is published as a Request for Comments (RFC) to gather feedback from the wider robotics and ethics community.
· Introduction · A brief introduction to Data Loggers · The Ethical Black Box · Why do we need a standardised EBB? · The Draft Open Standard · Annex A: Draft Standard for an Ethical Black Box Software Module for Social Robots
How it scores
Each score is backed by a quote verified against the document text. Editorial review has not yet confirmed them.
Fairness
0/5Non-discrimination and equitable treatment
screening score · 2026-10-23
Human Dignity
0/5Respect for the inherent worth of persons
screening score · 2026-10-23
Human Oversight
0/5Humans remain in control of consequential decisions
screening score · 2026-10-23
Privacy
0/5Protection of personal data and private life
screening score · 2026-10-23
Transparency
4/5Openness about how AI systems work and are used
An EBB can be used to support robot ‘explainability’ functions to allow, for instance, the robot to answer ‘Why did you just do that?’ questions from its user.
1 Introduction
screening score · 2026-10-23
Enforcement
0/5Consequences and compliance mechanisms with real force
screening score · 2026-10-23
Impact Assessment
0/5Required assessment of an AI system's risks/impacts before or during use
screening score · 2026-10-23