The 2024 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems, ICUAS ’24, will take place on June 4-7. It is organized for the first time in the historical Center of Mediterranean Architecture (KAM), which is hosted in the Great Shipyard (Megalo Arsenali) of Chania. The conference is under the auspices of, and it is sponsored by, the Technical University of Crete (TUC), technically cosponsored by the IEEE Control Systems Society, the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, and the Mediterranean Control Association, and fully sponsored by the ICUAS Association, Inc., a non-profit organization.

ICUAS ’24 offers unique opportunities to meet, interact and shape the future of unmanned aviation, worldwide, bringing together the technical, regulatory, and legal communities.

ICUAS ’24 focuses on civil and public domain applications and on the societal impact of unmanned aviation, and its effect on everyday quality of life. Topics of special importance are:

    Bioinspired aerial platforms
    Hybrid platforms
    Design for resiliency
    Human factors
    Framework and regulations for integration into the national airspace

ICUAS ’24 brings together, under one forum, national and international organizations, federal agencies, industry, the private sector, authorities, end-users, and practitioners, who work towards defining roadmaps of Unmanned Aircraft Systems/Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (UAS/RPAS), they set expectations and technical requirements and standards that are prerequisite to their full utilization and integration into the national airspace. Special emphasis will be given to research opportunities, and to ‘what comes next’ in terms of the tools and support technologies, and standards, which need to be utilized and implemented to advance the state-of-the-art.

ICUAS ’24 includes the student-focused and student-centered UAV Competition, which offers unique opportunities for students to test and compare their skills with those of their peers worldwide. The competition is organized in two stages: simulation qualifiers and in-person finals during the conference. Details on how to participate in the UAV Competition are available on the conference web.

Conference topics of interest include:
Airspace Control	        Networked UAS
Airspace Management	Payloads
Airworthiness	                Path Planning and Navigation
Autonomy	                Reliability of UAS
Biologically Inspired UAS 	Risk Analysis
Certification	                See/Sense-Detect-and-Avoid Systems
Control Architectures	Security
Energy Efficient UAS	Sensor Fusion
Environmental Issues 	Smart Sensors
Fail-Safe Systems	        Standardization
Frequency Management	Technology Challenges
Integration	                Training
Interoperability	        UAS Applications
Levels of Safety 	        UAS Communications
Manned/Unmanned Aviation	UAS Testbeds
Micro- and Mini- UAS 	UAS Transportation Management (UTM)

ICUAS ’24 spans four days. The first day is devoted to Workshops and Tutorials. This is followed by three days of technical presentations. The 2024 conference aims to be ‘physical presence’ only with the requirement that every accepted paper is presented.

Through keynote addresses, round table discussions, and presentations, the outcome of the conference will be a clear understanding of what industry, civilian, national, and international authorities need, and what are the crucial next steps to be completed before UAS/RPAS are utilized in everyday applications.