Ethics and robotics Ethics and robotics are two academic disciplines one dealing with the moral norms and values underlying implicitly or explicitly human behavior and the other aiming at the production of artificial agents mostly as physical devices with some degree of autonomy based on rules and programmes set up by their creators. Robotics is also one of the research fields where the convergence of nanotechnology biotechnology information technology and cognitive science is currently taking place with large societal and legal implications beyond traditional industrial applications