ABSTRACT
Culture manifests as complex relationships of practices stemming from collective knowledge transmitted through specific group social interactions, and the symbolic constructions that give those activities meaning and significance. Robert Mandelbaum, former Program Manager for the ARM initiative, was asked to give an example of the task that the ARM hardware and software under development would produce. He used Improvised Explosive Device (IED) disarmament as a specific example, indicating that Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) work would be one area where ARM robots may be used. The Navy Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence (NCRAI) is developing a bipedal, two-armed robot called Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot, to assist sailors with damage control and inspection operations aboard naval vessels. In the political arena, scientific experts advocating for the minimization of the creation and use of lethal autonomous weapons (LAWS) and lethal autonomous robots (LARS) are concerned about keeping a discussion open about the ethical considerations of building these systems, and related policies.
