Robots as Products: The Case for a Realistic Analysis of Robotic Applications and Liability Rules

Prof. Bertolini's paper on "Robots as Products: The Case for a Realistic Analysis of Robotic Applications and Liability Rules" brings a great contribution to technology regulation by defining robots from a functional perspective, as: "a machine which (i) may either have a tangible physical body, allowing it to interact with the external world, or rather have an intangible nature—such as a software or program, (ii) which in its functioning is alternatively directly controlled or simply supervised by a human being, or may even act autonomously in order to (iii) perform tasks, which present different degrees of complexity (repetitive or not) and may entail the adoption of non-predetermined choices among possible alternatives, yet aimed at attaining a result or provide information for further judgment, as so determined by its user, creator or programmer, (iv) including but not limited to the modification of the external environment, and which in so doing may (v) interact and cooperate with humans in various forms and degrees".

You can download the full paper here