The common consensus is that robots designed to work alongside or serve humans must adhere to the ethical standards of their operational environment. To achieve this, several methods based on established ethical theories have been suggested. Nonetheless, numerous empirical studies show that the ethical requirements of the real world are very diverse and can change rapidly from region to region. This eliminates the idea of a universal robot that can fit into any ethical context. However, creating customised robots for each deployment, using existing techniques is challenging. This paper presents a way to overcome this challenge by introducing a virtue ethics inspired computational method that enables character-based tuning of robots to accommodate the specific ethical needs of an environment. Using a simulated elder-care environment, we illustrate how tuning can be used to change the behaviour of a robot that interacts with an elderly resident in an ambient-assisted environment. Further, we assess the robot's responses by consulting ethicists to identify potential shortcomings.

翻译：普遍共识认为，为与人类协同工作或服务人类而设计的机器人，必须遵循其运行环境的伦理标准。为实现这一目标，已有学者基于成熟的伦理理论提出了若干方法。然而，大量实证研究表明，现实世界的伦理要求具有高度多样性，且可能因地区差异而快速变化。这使得能够适应任何伦理情境的通用机器人构想难以成立。然而，利用现有技术为每次部署定制机器人亦面临挑战。本文提出一种克服该挑战的路径：引入一种受美德伦理学启发的计算方法，通过基于品格的调谐使机器人能够适应特定环境的伦理需求。我们在模拟的老年护理环境中，展示了如何通过调谐改变机器人在环境辅助场景中与老年居民互动时的行为。此外，我们通过咨询伦理学家来评估机器人的响应，以识别其潜在缺陷。