Christos‐Nikolaos Anagnostopoulos

Dimitrios Sidiropoulos, Christos-Nikolaos Anagnostopoulos

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in recent years has shown an unprecedentedly impressive development, tending to play a catalytic role in all aspects of life. The interest of the academic community, but also of governments, is huge in the dynamics of AI and is reflected by the truly explosive amount of investment and research that is underway. Enthusiastic opinions and statements about AI are made every day, but at the same time they also bring to the fore alarming predictions about its effects. This paper aims to describe the opportunities emerging from the use of artificial intelligence and ChatGPT to improve education, but also to identify the challenges and ethical issues that arise.

Nikos Piperigkos, Alexandros Gkillas, Christos Anagnostopoulos et al.

This paper proposes a novel localization framework based on collaborative training or federated learning paradigm, for highly accurate localization of autonomous vehicles. More specifically, we build on the standard approach of KalmanNet, a recurrent neural network aiming to estimate the underlying system uncertainty of traditional Extended Kalman Filtering, and reformulate it by the adapt-then-combine concept to FedKalmanNet. The latter is trained in a distributed manner by a group of vehicles (or clients), with local training datasets consisting of vehicular location and velocity measurements, through a global server aggregation operation. The FedKalmanNet is then used by each vehicle to localize itself, by estimating the associated system uncertainty matrices (i.e, Kalman gain). Our aim is to actually demonstrate the benefits of collaborative training for state estimation in autonomous driving, over collaborative decision-making which requires rich V2X communication resources for measurement exchange and sensor fusion under real-time constraints. An extensive experimental and evaluation study conducted in CARLA autonomous driving simulator highlights the superior performance of FedKalmanNet over state-of-the-art collaborative decision-making approaches, in localizing vehicles without the need of real-time V2X communication.

Aggeliki Sideraki, Christos-Nikolaos Anagnostopoulos

This paper explores the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a tool for diagnosis, assessment, and intervention for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It focuses particularly on AI's role in early diagnosis, utilizing advanced machine learning techniques and data analysis. Recent studies demonstrate that deep learning algorithms can identify behavioral patterns through biometric data analysis, video-based interaction assessments, and linguistic feature extraction, providing a more accurate and timely diagnosis compared to traditional methods. Additionally, AI automates diagnostic tools, reducing subjective biases and enabling the development of personalized assessment protocols for ASD monitoring. At the same time, the paper examines AI-powered intervention technologies, emphasizing educational robots and adaptive communication tools. Social robotic assistants, such as NAO and Kaspar, have been shown to enhance social skills in children by offering structured, repetitive interactions that reinforce learning. Furthermore, AI-driven Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems allow children with ASD to express themselves more effectively, while machine-learning chatbots provide language development support through personalized responses. The study presents research findings supporting the effectiveness of these AI applications while addressing challenges such as long-term evaluation and customization to individual needs. In conclusion, the paper highlights the significance of AI as an innovative tool in ASD diagnosis and intervention, advocating for further research to assess its long-term impact.

Nikolaos Giakoumidis, Christos-Nikolaos Anagnostopoulos

Nowadays, the use of advanced sensors, such as terrestrial 3D laser scanners, mobile LiDARs and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) photogrammetric imaging, has become the prevalent practice for 3D Reality Modeling and digitization of large-scale monuments of Cultural Heritage (CH). In practice, this process is heavily related to the expertise of the surveying team, handling the laborious planning and time-consuming execution of the 3D mapping process that is tailored to the specific requirements and constraints of each site. To minimize human intervention, this paper introduces a novel methodology for autonomous 3D Reality Modeling for CH monuments by employing au-tonomous biomimetic quadrupedal robotic agents and UAVs equipped with the appropriate sensors. These autonomous robotic agents carry out the 3D RM process in a systematic and repeatable ap-proach. The outcomes of this automated process may find applications in digital twin platforms, facilitating secure monitoring and management of cultural heritage sites and spaces, in both indoor and outdoor environments.

Christos Mousas, Alexandros Koilias, Dimitris Anastasiou et al.

The present study investigates users' movement behavior in a virtual environment when they attempted to avoid a virtual character. At each iteration of the experiment, four conditions (Self-Avatar LookAt, No Self-Avatar LookAt, Self-Avatar No LookAt, and No Self-Avatar No LookAt) were applied to examine users' movement behavior based on kinematic measures. During the experiment, 52 participants were asked to walk from a starting position to a target position. A virtual character was placed at the midpoint. Participants were asked to wear a head-mounted display throughout the task, and their locomotion was captured using a motion capture suit. We analyzed the captured trajectories of the participants' routes on four kinematic measures to explore whether the four experimental conditions influenced the paths they took. The results indicated that the Self-Avatar LookAt condition affected the path the participants chose more significantly than the other three conditions in terms of length, duration, and deviation, but not in terms of speed. Overall, the length and duration of the task, as well as the deviation of the trajectory from the straight line, were greater when a self-avatar represented participants. An additional effect on kinematic measures was found in the LookAt (Gaze) conditions. Implications for future research are discussed.