Discursive Frameworks for the Development of Inclusive Robotics

Important ethical-political ideas are analysed in this contribution: autonomy, dependency, vulnerability, functioning, care and disability, within the relevant discursive frameworks for development of an inclusive robotics. This development will have to take into account the regulatory framework of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and prospectively orient itself towards facilitating autonomy in the achievement of human functionings in inclusive environments, guaranteeing the conditions for good care. To this end, it will be important to also pay attention to theoretical frameworks such as the capability approach (Sen, Nussbaum) and ethical conceptions of care (Tronto, Kittay). Additionally, we feel another social group that should be considered regarding the consequences coming from the introduction of robotics is the group made up of children and adolescents. For the responsible integration of inclusive and interactive robotics, as a mediating factor in the socialisation process, it is necessary to maintain careful protections in regard to the inherent vulnerability of this group; this requires that the general regulatory obligations regarding protection, full development and wellbeing underlying the discourse in the Convention on the Rights of the Child be used as a reference in order to always safeguard the greater interests of the minor.