Related papers: Integrating ethical, societal and environmental is…
Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) are increasingly embraced around the world to advance smart mobility and more broadly, smart, and sustainable cities. Algorithms form the basis of decision-making in AVs, allowing them to perform driving tasks…
This article surveys the use of algorithmic systems to support decision-making in the public sector. Governments adopt, procure, and use algorithmic systems to support their functions within several contexts -- including criminal justice,…
A major challenge to deploying robots widely is navigation in human-populated environments, commonly referred to as social robot navigation. While the field of social navigation has advanced tremendously in recent years, the fair evaluation…
We present a context classification pipeline to allow a robot to change its navigation strategy based on the observed social scenario. Socially-Aware Navigation considers social behavior in order to improve navigation around people. Most of…
This paper develops incentive mechanisms for promoting eco-driving with the overarching goal of minimizing emissions in transportation networks. The system operator provides drivers with energy-efficient driving guidance throughout their…
Navigation is a rich and well-grounded problem domain that drives progress in many different areas of research: perception, planning, memory, exploration, and optimisation in particular. Historically these challenges have been separately…
Both the ethics of autonomous systems and the problems of their technical implementation have by now been studied in some detail. Less attention has been given to the areas in which these two separate concerns meet. This paper, written by…
Machine learning is increasingly used to inform decision-making in sensitive situations where decisions have consequential effects on individuals' lives. In these settings, in addition to requiring models to be accurate and robust, socially…
Real-time Advisory (RTA) systems, such as navigational and eco-driving assistants, are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in vehicles due to their benefits for users and society. Until autonomous vehicles mature, such advisory systems will…
Automated vehicles have received much attention recently, particularly the DARPA Urban Challenge vehicles, Google's self-driving cars, and various others from auto manufacturers. These vehicles have the potential to significantly reduce…
The Causal Roadmap outlines a systematic approach to asking and answering questions of cause-and-effect: define the quantity of interest, evaluate needed assumptions, conduct statistical estimation, and carefully interpret results. To…
This article offers several contributions to the interdisciplinary project of responsible research and innovation in data science and AI. First, it provides a critical analysis of current efforts to establish practical mechanisms for…
Over the past decade, GPS enabled traffic applications, such as Google Maps and Waze, have become ubiquitous and have had a significant influence on billions of daily commuters' travel patterns. A consequence of the online route suggestions…
Pathways that describe the optimal evolution of energy systems across multiple decades are important in energy system research and policy literature, with net-zero and similar climate policies being common drivers behind them. While there…
We present a general approach to automating ethical decisions, drawing on machine learning and computational social choice. In a nutshell, we propose to learn a model of societal preferences, and, when faced with a specific ethical dilemma…
This paper studies how global dynamics and knowledge of high-level features can inform decision-making for robots in flow-like environments. Specifically, we investigate how coherent sets, an environmental feature found in these…
Navigating socially in human environments requires more than satisfying geometric constraints, as collision-free paths may still interfere with ongoing activities or conflict with social norms. Addressing this challenge calls for analyzing…
Efficient trajectory planning for urban intersections is currently one of the most challenging tasks for an Autonomous Vehicle (AV). Courteous behavior towards other traffic participants, the AV's comfort and its progression in the…
Algorithms in public services such as child welfare, criminal justice, and education are increasingly being used to make high-stakes decisions about human lives. Drawing upon findings from a two-year ethnography conducted at a child welfare…
In this paper, we will discuss the design and implementation of three educational robotics workshops that focus on the use of robotics for addressing real-world societal problems. Through the workshops, we aimed to investigate how the…