UASUV 2017 Med Unmanned Vehicles Technology | Page 29

Dr. Ioannis KOUKOS
Dean,
Hellenic Naval Academy
Professor Ioannis Koukos holds a PhD in Space Telecom (1984), an MSEE (1979) and an MS-Applied
Math (1983) all from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and a Diploma of Electrical
Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece (1997). Currently, he is a Professor of Combat
Systems and Electronic Warfare, a position he held since 1998, and Dean of the Hellenic Naval
Academy. He is also a part time professor of Avionics and Radar at the Hellenic Air-Force Academy
since 1995 and of Electronic Warfare at the Graduate Telecommunicati ons School of the Hellenic
Army since 1996. Prior to that, he has served in various Research and Development Positions in the
Aerospace Industry of Southern California, having been one of the first GPS Systems developers at
the Magnavox Research Labs (1985). For a period of 7 years (1997-94) he had served as a NASA
Deep Space Telecom System Engineer at the prestigious Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
California, participating in the Magellan, Galileo, Cassini, Mars Observer, and Ulysses Interplanetary
Missions and as a NASA Delegate at the International Space Agencies’ CCSDS Commission.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Space System Architectures and Standards – Space Telecom

GNSS – GPS systems design, Antijamming / Antispoofing Studies

Satellite & Terrestrial Wireless and Mobile Telecommunications Systems

Electronic Warfare System Analyst & Designer (ELINT, COMINT, SIGINT)

Radar System Analysis and Performance Evaluation

Sonar System Signal Analysis and Defense Applications in Acoustics

Avionics Flight Control Systems / Attack Avionics

Ad Hoc Sensor Networks and UAS/UAV

Battle Management Systems – Network Centric Warfare – Military GIS

"The rapid evolution of the UxV: benefits and pitfalls"
In the first two decades of the 21st century, the rapid evolution of drones backed by the new micro-
and nano-technologies brings this new gadget closer and closer into the realm of robotics, for
necessities driven by emerging new fields of applications in Remote Sensing, Surveillance, Photography,
Photogrammetry, Cartography, Search and Rescue, Security and Defense.
Back in 1942, science fiction master author Isaac Asimov formulated the three laws that should be build
in to any robot that humans may create in the future:
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with
the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or
Second Laws.
Today we wonder whether these 3 laws have been already violated in the form of UCAVs.
Benefits are multiple and obvious in the society while Pitfalls can be classified: Proliferation of UxV
usage will bring accidents and need for law enforcement and countermeasures, UxV use by criminals
and terrorists, “Big Brother” type of Citizen’s Privacy Encroachment, Total Replacement of Humans by
UxV robots.
In the Hellenic Naval Academy we have a multitude of research projects in the UxV area : Velleroforntis
UAV Helicopter programs I, II and III, Enalion AUV project, Picosatellite Program.