Accountability in Autonomous Drone-Based Firefighting: Insights From a Field Trial
For emergency response organizations and policymakers, this study reveals accountability challenges in deploying autonomous drones, offering practical guidance for responsible integration.
This paper investigates how autonomous drones affect accountability attribution in emergency response, using two real-life firefighting field trials. It identifies two key challenges—role uncertainty and new human-drone interaction issues—and proposes recommendations for responsible integration.
There is a growing research field exploring how autonomous drones can enhance emergency response effectiveness. Integrating these (artificial) agents into existing emergency teams and workflows may significantly impact established accountability relationships. This paper examines how autonomous drones affect accountability attribution within complex socio-technical systems. Drawing on two real-life field trials in firefighting, the study reveals substantial uncertainty around accountability when drones are organizationally deployed. Using Bovens' accountability framework, two challenges are identified: (1) uncertainty about the role of drones within hierarchical structures, leading to confused accountability ascriptions; and (2) new forms of human-drone interactions introducing additional accountability-relevant issues. Based on these insights, the paper proposes actionable recommendations to support the responsible integration of autonomous drones into firefighting operations without undermining accountability. These findings offer practical guidance for policymakers and contribute to further research on accountability in autonomous systems.