Student: Robert Philpott III, Graduate Student in Aerospace Engineering, Iowa State University
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Christina Bloebaum
Quantifying the ethical, legal and societal concerns of UAS in civil applications with the use of value modeling
My research project aims to quantify the ethical, legal and societal concerns of UAS in civil applications with the use of value modeling. This model will be used for mission scenario evaluation to govern whether a mission should be conducted beforehand from an ethical, legal, societal and environmental (ELSE) point of view depending on the application of the UAS in civilian airspace. This project incorporates real world civil applications of the UAS into the scenarios evaluated. It will provide a way to measure how effective various missions may be (from an ELSE standpoint) when used in contact with the general population. The model will serve to aid decision makers in determining whether they should conduct a mission by weighing the various concerns that arise (from an ELSE point of view) and balancing whether violating those concerns are worth the execution of a mission. The model will incorporate mission scenario, autonomy level, technological readiness, and environmental complexity, among other factors, in a rigorous mathematical framework. The value model will also address the question of whether a designer should be held accountable for ethical violations.