The main objective of the workshop is to raise awareness, prompt debate and share knowledge about ethical, legal and user/social perspectives for robot assistants operating in personal and public environments with humans.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, including robots, pose challenges and opportunities for health- and home care. Amongst the relevant and essential aspects currently discussed are privacy, cybersecurity, safety, diversity, and inclusion considerations (Fosch-Villaronga and Mahler, 2021) and (Fosch-Villaronga and Drukarch, 2023). There is increasing attention on the ethical implications and legal issues related to robots and systems. Recently, the European Commission has proposed the regulations on Artificial Intelligence, e.g., the Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) (European Commission 2021a), and the New Machinery Directive (MD) (European Commission2021b). The AIA is the first of this kind in the world and will highly impact AI-based systems, including intelligent robots and other software that will be used, developed, or imported to Europe. Therefore, the AIA will contain key requirements for a global market for robots and AI systems. 

Other important ongoing efforts are defining standards for intelligent systems and studying design with user participation. 

It is important to determine what legal frameworks need to be followed to ensure user safety in highly robotic environments. The workshop will provide an overview of the most pressing ethical and legal challenges surrounding the development and use of robots in human environments. 

The workshop aims to raise awareness about these topics and engage with the community to think about mitigating risks and ways to reduce the unfavorable impact on society. The workshop will illustrate the challenges related to privacy, security, safety, and diversity of users through several examples.