Is Open Robotics Innovation a Threat to International Peace and Security?: A Roadmap for Reducing Risks

2025-12-01

IEEE robotics & automation magazine

AI Summary

This study addresses the dual-use risks inherent in open-source robotics, which, while accelerating scientific research and system development, also pose significant military and malicious misuse threats that existing governance frameworks struggle to mitigate. The work presents the first systematic roadmap for responsible innovation tailored specifically to robotics, integrating policy analysis with interdisciplinary governance approaches grounded in ethics, safety, and technology diffusion theory. It proposes four actionable practices—educational guidance, risk assessment, controlled dissemination of high-risk materials, and the establishment of clear red lines—to inform the development of community-driven norms and potential regulatory policies. By doing so, it underscores the distinct governance requirements of robotics, differentiating them from those of general-purpose AI and weapons of mass destruction.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Other Foundations and Applications
• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Safety, Robustness & Trustworthiness
• Natural Language Processing: Safety and Robustness

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Technology governance, policy, and regulations
• Security and Privacy: Data transparency and provenance
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness and ethical considerations in crowd work and in human-in-the-loop AI systems

Abstract

Open access to publication, software, and hardware is central to robotics: it lowers barriers to entry, supports reproducible science, and accelerates reliable system development. However, openness also exacerbates the inherent dual-use risks associated with research and innovation in robotics. It lowers barriers for states and nonstate actors to develop and deploy robotics systems for military use and harmful purposes. Compared with other fields of engineering where dual-use risks are present, e.g., those that underlie the development of weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons) and even the field of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics offers no specific regulation and little guidance as to how research and innovation may be conducted and disseminated responsibly. While other fields can be used for guidance, robotics has its own needs and specificities that have to be taken into account. The robotics community should therefore work toward its own set of sector-specific guidance and possibly regulation. To that end, we propose a roadmap focusing on four practices: 1) education in responsible robotics, 2) incentivizing risk assessment, 3) moderating the diffusion of high-risk material, and 4) developing red lines.

Problem

• open robotics
• dual-use risk
• international peace and security
• responsible innovation
• regulation

Innovation

• open robotics
• dual-use risk
• responsible innovation
• research governance
• red lines