Ethical Risks of Human–Robot Interaction in the Construction Industry: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Robotics is increasingly deployed on construction sites, enhancing efficiency, safety, and quality. However, the form of human–robot interaction (HRI) poses various ethical challenges, and insufficient attention has been paid to the ethical aspects of HRI in the construction industry within the academic community. To bridge this gap, this study aims to identify, analyze, and evaluate ethical risks across various HRI patterns in the construction industry through an agent-relationship-scenario three-tier ethical lens. This lens includes three types of agents: managers, workers, and robots, as well as five interaction patterns: remote monitoring, proximity manipulation, non-collaborative coexistence, non-wearable collaboration, and wearable collaboration. This study conducts a systematic literature review based on the PRISMA protocol and develops a systematic ethical risk classification framework. Additionally, the characteristics of ethical risks across different HRI models and scenarios are further analyzed. Finally, based on the analysis of ethical risks, this study proposes ethical guidelines and normative recommendations. The findings reveal six dimensions of ethical risks:overtrust or distrust, human misconduct, robot system misdesign, physical risks, psychological risks, and regulation and accountability risks. This study offers new insights into ethical aspects of HRI in the construction industry, provides suggestions for future research, and lays a foundation for developing administrative guidelines