Ethical Behaviour Aspects of Autonomous Intelligent Cyber-Physical Systems

Industry 4.0 fosters the development of more autonomous and intelligent cyber-physical systems that interact with humans in open environments. While the technical aspects are heavily researched, the same does not hold for the accompanying ethical issues that are relevant for the design, development, operation, and maintenance of such systems. In engineering teams and industrialists at large, ethical behavior aspects of autonomous intelligent cyber-physical systems are often seen as an add-on and are rarely appropriately considered during system engineering. The aim of this work is firstly to understand the reluctance of researchers and industrialists and secondly, to justify the need to address ethical considerations in all lifecycle phases of autonomous intelligent cyber-physical systems. A case study in train transportation exemplifies some of the issues discussed, and clearly shows that the development of autonomous intelligent cyber-physical systems without addressing their ethical behavior is incomplete.