Research Proposal on AI and Robotics

MSc
Informatio
n Systems
Manageme
nt
Assignment - Project
Proposal
Robotics and AI
Pxxxxxxxx
De Montfort
University
IMAT5262 Research,
Ethics &
Professionalism in
Computing

P Number: Pxxxxxxxx IMAT5262 Research, Ethics &
Professionalism in
Abstract
The purpose of the proposal is to identify the research problem and the research
questions associated with AI and robotics. The proposal provides an evidence of the
initial literature review that has been conducted in the topic. The literature review
provides an idea of past developments in the field of robotics and further analyses
the current situation as well. The literature review is conducted to identify the gap in
knowledge that is needed to be addressed. The proposal further identifies the
method that can be used to successfully conduct the undertaken research.
Key Words
Artificial intelligence, robotics, ethical issues, gaps in knowledge
1

P Number: Pxxxxxxxx IMAT5262 Research, Ethics &
Professionalism in
Contents
1. Background...................................................................................................... 3
2. Research questions.......................................................................................... 3
3. Literature Review.............................................................................................. 3
3.1. Past development and history...................................................................3
3.2. Current situation....................................................................................... 4
3.3. Ethical issues............................................................................................ 4
4. Methodology Review......................................................................................... 5
4.1. Interview................................................................................................... 5
4.2. Questionnaires.......................................................................................... 5
4.3 Survey.......................................................................................................... 5
4.5 Focus Groups................................................................................................ 6
Case Studies....................................................................................................... 6
Chosen Methodologies........................................................................................ 6
Analysis method.............................................................................................. 6
Selection methods........................................................................................... 6
5. Conclusion....................................................................................................... 6
6. References....................................................................................................... 8
7. Appendices...................................................................................................... 0
7.1. Appendix A................................................................................................ 0
7.2. Appendix B................................................................................................ 0
7.3. Appendix C................................................................................................ 5
7.4. Appendix D................................................................................................ 6
7.5. Appendix E................................................................................................ 7
2

P Number: Pxxxxxxxx IMAT5262 Research, Ethics &
Professionalism in
1. Background
Artificial intelligence or AI can be referred to as an area of computer science,
which focuses on creation of some intelligent machines. These types of machines
majorly work as well as react such as human beings (Dirican 2015). The
computers with AI are eventually designed for execution few activities like
problem solving, planning, learning and speech recognition. Robotics is a part of
engineering, which is being used in several situations for developing machines,
which could substitute for human beings and could even replicate the actions.
The following research proposal outlines a brief discussion on artificial
intelligence and robotics. This particular topic is chosen as it is an emerging field
and has immense potential to bring out new benefits and features for eradication
of any complexity. These robots could be utilized in several situations like risky
environments. Peer reviewed journals would be used for understanding various
ethical issues and identification of gaps in knowledge, which is required to be
addressed.
2. Research questions
The research will analyse the following research questions. The researcher
will try to find answer to the following research questions-
1. How is artificial intelligence applied in robotics?
2. How has artificial intelligence evolved in the last few years?
3. What are the ethical related to AI and Robotics?
3. Literature Review
3.1. Past development and history
According to Bimbraw 2015, robotics is one of the most important and
significant part of artificial intelligence. One of such popular application of
robotics is autonomous cars. There were few trends in autonomous vehicle
technology for past, present and future. The development of this technology
started in the year, 1920, as soon as first radio controlled vehicles were being
designed. During the next few years, robotics had been an emerging field and
there was autonomous electric car, powered by some embedded circuit. After
the year of 1960, autonomous car has same electronic guide system (Laird,
Lebiere and Rosenbloom 2017). Several semi autonomous characteristics were
being introduced within modern car like adaptive cruise controls, automatic
braking and lane keeping on the basis of these systems.
According to Ghahramani 2015, artificial intelligence is the simulation of
human intelligence procedures by involving computerized system. All of such
processes involve learning, reasoning and self-correction. Few important
applications of artificial intelligence involve machine vision, speech recognition
and expert systems and this technology could be categorized as either strong or
weak. The weak AI is being designed for any specific task and strong artificial
intelligence comprises of generalized human cognitive capabilities (Matarić
3

P Number: Pxxxxxxxx IMAT5262 Research, Ethics &
Professionalism in
2017). During the past developments of artificial intelligence, there were few
important and significant aspects and gaps that were needed to be addressed
and gradually, new developments were being met. Moreover, due to the new
advancements, it was much easier for users to obtain advantages.
3.2. Current situation
Chiu and Urban 2015 stated that, the current situation of robotics is much
more effective in comparison to past developments. One of such recent
development is humanoid robots. These robots comprise of several capabilities
for understanding the opportunities, potential threats and questions. It is
extremely important for modern manufacturing and is quite vital for performing
the complex tasks. Moreover, modern robotic elements have improvised in
respect to better sensors and precision (Wisskirchen
et al. 2017). These sensors
allow robots for executing any type of task, which previously need human
beings. The modern robots are inherently limited as well as extremely costly for
developing.
Furthermore, previously digitalized cameras were being utilized, which
were extremely expensive. With the involvement of current characteristics of
robotics or artificial intelligence, visual sensors are being developed for providing
3D sensing capability and better precision (Dirican 2015). The involvement of
sensors have made robots highly approachable and user friendly, unlike previous
days.
3.3. Ethical issues
Although, robotics is providing some of the major and the most significant
advantages to the users and technological world, there are few noteworthy
ethical issues, which are being raised in the current society (Lin, Abney and
Bekey 2014). The most prominent ethical issues related to robotics and artificial
intelligence are as follows:
i)
Unemployment: This is the first and the foremost ethical issue that has
become a major concern for robotics. Due to excessive involvement of robots
and robotics, several individuals are losing their jobs. The entire hierarchy of
labour would be concerned with automation. According to Fridin 2014, it
characterizes with strategic as well as administrative works within the global
society. Thus, unemployment is one of the most significant ethical issue that
occurs with involvement of robotics.
ii)
Inequality: This is yet another vital and noteworthy ethical issue, common for
robotics. The economic system is on the basis of compensation for contributing
to the subsequent economy. Most of the organizations are completely dependent
on hourly work, when it comes to several products (Warwick 2013). However, by
utilizing AI, an organization could easily cut down the human work force. Thus,
inequality is quite common for this technology.
iii)
Effect on Interaction and Behaviour: The next ethical issue is that robots
do not have humanity. The machines have major effect on interaction and
behaviour and AI bots have become better at modelling human relationships and
conversation. Thus, human attention and triggering of certain actions.
4

P Number: Pxxxxxxxx IMAT5262 Research, Ethics &
Professionalism in
iv)
Security: Another ethical issue common for robotics is security. According to
Fridin 2014, this type of powerful technology can bring extremely nefarious and
it applies not only to the robots produced for replacing autonomous weapons and
human soldiers. However, AI systems could cause major damage whenever
utilized maliciously. Cyber security issues are hence extremely common for AI
and robotics (Lin, Abney and Bekey 2014). These types of issues should be
eradicated on time easily and promptly.
Knowledge Gap: There should be a proper identification of gap in knowledge of
robotics that is required to be addressed (Laird, Lebiere and Rosenbloom 2017).
One of the major gaps that should be addressed is lack of cost effectiveness.
Since, robots require a constant supply of power, organizational members could
lose their jobs. They require continuous maintenance for keeping them running
and it needs high investments. The equipment and software needed for such
maintenance, is much costlier as programs are needed to be upgraded (Chiu and
Urban 2015). Another gap that is to be addressed is that robots could be
extremely time consuming at time and this issue should be eradicated for
making robots more efficient.
4. Methodology Review
Selection of an appropriate methodology is necessary to ensure that all the
project objectives are met. This section of the proposal will be identifying the
approaches used to perform the research, the techniques that can be used to
collect the data and the analysis methods that are used for analysis of the
collected data.
Qualitative and Quantitative method are two significant approaches that
are mainly used fr conducting a research. The two approaches of conducting a
research is discussed in the following paragraphs.
Qualitative Approach: The qualitative data mainly refers to the non-
numeric information that can help the researcher in conducting the research
study. The qualitative research mainly aims in telling a story related to a group
experiences (Bryman 2016). Therefore, in qualitative research employs an
inductive approach that enables the researcher in identification of the research
hypothesis. The qualitative research methods are more exploratory in nature, as
it seeks to provide insight on how individuals have an understanding to a
particular case.
Quantitative Approach: The quantitative research approach makes use
of deductive logic and is related to the hypotheses set and the method of data
collection (Bell, Bryman and Harley 2018). The qualitative approach requires the
researcher to make use of the numeric information and variables.
It is necessary for a researcher to identify the techniques that can be used
for conducting a research. There are a number of techniques that can be used to
collect both qualitative and Quantitative data (Sekaran, and Bougie 2016). The
techniques of information collection include case study, interview, survey
questionnaire, observation, focus groups and others.
5