Special Session 3

SPECIAL SESSION #3

Michele Buonsanti

Department of civil engineering, energy, environment and materials DICEAM,University “Mediterranea” of Reggio Calabria, Italy

• michele.buonsanti@unirc.it

Alessia Ferraro

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, DIIES, University “Mediterranea” of Reggio Calabria, Italy

• alessia.ferraro@unirc.it

Valerio Scordamaglia

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, DIIES, University “Mediterranea” of Reggio Calabria, Italy

• valerio.scordamaglia@unirc.it

In an increasingly dynamic aerospace and defense landscape, ensuring flight safety while integrating modern defense systems is both a technical and technological challenge. This special session aims to bring together cutting-edge research, innovative methods and practical solutions that will shape the future of flight safety and defense capabilities. We particularly welcome contributions that propose novel approaches to risk assessment and mitigation, system design and integration, and the application of emerging technologies — such as artificial intelligence and machine learning — to improve the safety and performance of civil and military aviation systems. A particular focus is on methods and tools for the simulation and verification of Crew Resource Management (CRM) processes in multi-crew environments and their integration into decision making systems for single and multi-crew operations. This includes strategies for human-machine collaboration, adaptive decision support systems and simulation environments to improve collaboration performance under operational stress. The session encourages submissions that not only advance academic understanding, but also demonstrate tangible practical results that have the potential to improve flight safety and defense readiness in the real world. Studies that demonstrate significant advances in the seamless integration of defense technologies without compromising operational safety will be given special consideration, especially given the increasingly complex global scenario.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Flight Dynamics;
• Control Theory;
• Autonomous robots for defense and security;
• Coordinated Control;
• Fault-tolerant systems;
• Modelling and simulation;
• Communication (i.e., security, resilience);
• Air traffic management (i.e., Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Swarm of Autonomous Vehicles, Multi drone systems, Unmanned systems);
• Guidance, navigation and control;
• Cross-disciplinary elements of interest for autonomous robots and vehicles: Cyber-Physical;
• Systems, internet of things, artificial intelligence.

Michele Buonsanti retired professor is currently a contract professor at the DICEAM Department of the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, where he holds, in the Magistral Course Civil Transport Engineering, the follow courses: Models for Flight Safety and Procedures and Safety of Air Navigation. Previously he held courses in Fracture Mechanics and Materials Mechanics for over 20 years. Already responsible, within the same University, of the MAAL laboratory (Micromechanics Aeronautics and Aerospace Laboratory). Since 2020 he has been selected by the Defense General Staff for his membership of a NATO research group regarding simulation and modeling processes in complex scenarios. Likewise, it has actively collaborated since 2012 with the Flight Safety Department of Italian Air force through the holding of seminars and conferences within the courses for Flight Safety Officer. He also carries out research activities on topics of interest to the Air Force within the same ISV. Already holder of joint research with the Centro Sperimentale Volo A.M. regarding delamination problems on the EFA aircraft. From 2012 to 2019 he was a member of the AECI Flight Safety group and in 2019 he assumed the presidency of the flight safety commission. Since 2019 he has been a representative of AECI within Italian Flight Safety Committee and since 2020 he has been part of the board of directors. Already a designer of aeronautical infrastructures for companies and public bodies, he has also been an aeronautical consultant for various administrations. Civilian pilot since 1981 in General Aviation (EASA & FAA) - SEP is the owner of a historic Piaggio P149D aircraft and Boieng PT17 Stearman.

Alessia Ferraro was born in 1996. She received her Masters degree in Electronic Engineering from the University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria in 2022. She is a Ph.D. student at the same University since 2022. Her research activity is focused on the development of autonomous robotic systems for first relief after natural disasters. From a theoretical point of view, she has focused on set-theoretic approaches for trajectory planning in multi-robot systems and for fault detection and isolation of autonomous systems.

Valerio Scordamaglia was born in 1977. He completed his doctorate in Electric and Automation Engineering at the University "Mediterranea" of Reggio Calabria in 2008. He has been an assistant professor of control systems at the same university since 2009. His current research focusses on the development of autonomous robotic systems for first aid operations after calamities. His expertise spans several areas, including robotics, flight control systems, autonomous vehicle guidance and the design of fault-tolerant systems.