On October 7th and 8th, 2018, MultiDrone co-sponsored a series of events during the 25th IEEE International Conference on Image Processing 2018 (ICIP 2018) held in Athens, Greece. It did so together with the recently IEEE Signal Processing Society approved IEEE SPS Autonomous Systems Initiative (ASI)

The events, collectively called ASI@ICIP2018, marked the inauguration of ASI and were well attended (more than 1200 registered participants).

The ASI@ICIP program was as follows:

●October 7th, 2018
    ◦Tutorial on Drone Vision for Cinematography and Media Production.
The tutorial was presented by MULTIDRONE team members I. Pitas, A. Tefas (both from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) and J. R. Martínez-de Dios (University of Seville).

●October 8th, 2018:
    ◦Paper session (oral) on Drone and Autonomous System Imaging.
The session was chaired by I. Pitas and it included a paper presenting MULTIDRONE results obtained by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki: I. Karakostas, I. Mademlis, N. Nikolaidis, I. Pitas, “UAV Cinematography Constraints Imposed by Visual Target Tracking”.

    ◦Inaugural ASI meeting, containing the following activities:
                ▹Prof. W. Kellermann, IEEE SPS Vice President, Technical Directions: Presentation of IEEE SPS megatrends initiatives.
                ▹Prof. W. Kellermann, IEEE SPS Vice President, Technical Directions: Presentation of IEEE SPS megatrends initiatives.
                ▹Prof. I. Pitas, acting ASI chair: Inaugural ASI presentation.
                ▹Discussion, proposals by ICIP 2018 participants on future ASI-related activities (e.g., courses, special sessions/issues).

    ◦ASI Steering Committee and members meeting

    ◦Three headline talks (1hr each):
                ▹Dr. A. Messina (RAI, Radiotelevisione Italiana, Italy, MultiDrone team member)
“Autonomous drone systems for media production”
                ▹Dr. G. Yovanof (Strategis, Greece)
“Autonomous Marine Systems – A Driver for Sustainable Growth in the Ocean Economy”
                ▹Dr. Gian-Luca Mariottini (Draper, USA)
“Perceptual Autonomy”

It should be noted that MultiDrone Coordinator I. Pitas played a key role in the establishment of the Autonomous Systems Initiative and is currently serving as ASI acting chair. ASI will provide an excellent platform in disseminating MultiDrone results.

From a scientific point of view, ASI will cover the following areas (non exhaustive list):
    ◦Perception
    ◦Sensor information processing
    ◦Mission planning and control
    ◦Machine learning for perception and control
    ◦Robust/secure mobile communications
    ◦Embedded systems
    ◦Security
    ◦Societal issues, e.g., data protection, privacy

From an industrial/sectorial point of view, ASI will cover autonomous systems operating in any environment, whether this is on land, underwater, in the air, underground, or in space:
    ◦Autonomous cars
    ◦Autonomous robotic systems
    ◦Marine, underwater vessels
    ◦Drones and unmanned aircraft

More detail and news regarding ASI can be found at: http://asi.politecnica.unige.it/