The EURA team work on different issues in the fields of robo-ethics, machine-ethics, bio-ethics and computer-ethics, as well as of human-robot interaction.

Great attention is dedicated to the issue of the so called “singularity” and to human enhancement. In this field, EURA’s researchers attempt to identify what technological advancements may be expected in light of existing technological research – in particular with respect to intelligence, autonomy, connectivity and integration with the human – and to develop a philosophical framework within which the different scenarios can be analysed, establishing a dialogue with legal principles in the attempt to find guiding criteria in the EU and MS legal systems to address such scenarios and regulate them.

Within the debate between bio-conservatives and transhumanists, EURA’s researchers transform the choices between different kinds of enhancement techniques into a series of both philosophical and policy questions sufficiently narrow-tailored, while identifying the principles in EU and MS law that could be of guidance in addressing human enhancement in a legal and political perspective, such as dignity, equality and freedom of self-determination.

The EURA team also carries out innovative research in the fields robots’ design, focusing on the issue deception through design, trust, as well as user’s acceptance, and mechanisms allowing or easing its uptake. It aims to understand how robots should robots be designed, which ethical dilemmas does biomimetic research give rise to, and whether human beings shall be free to decide whether to be deceived, or whether it should depend on the assessment of other relevant criteria that are partially independent of one’s choice.

EURA also carries out extensive research within the fields of responsible research and innovation and ethically-aligned design, with philosophers, lawyers and engineers working together to identify ethical principles which researchers and developers need to abide in their work, as well as those principles whose respect shall be ensured according to the “by-design” and “by-default” approach. On this matter, studies are conducted on the very possibility of hardcoding normative and ethical principles in R&AI applications.