Background and activities

(M’04-SM'12) received Ph.D. degree in Mechanical and Electronic Engineering in 2003. From 2004, he worked as Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Technical Aspects of Multimodal Systems (TAMS), Department of Informatics, Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, University of Hamburg, Germany. In Feb. 2011, he finished the Habilitation on Informatics at University of Hamburg.

Dr. Zhang joined the NTNU ( before 2016, Aalesund University College), Norway in April 2011 where he is a Professor on Robotics and Cybernetics. From 2011-2016, he hold a gift professorship on product and system design from the industry too. The focus of his research lies on two areas. One is on biological robots and modular robotics. The second focus is on virtual prototyping and maritime mechatronics. In these areas, he has published over 200 journal and conference papers and book chapters as author or co-author. Recently, he received four best paper awards at the Robotic conferences, and four finalist awards for best conference paper at IEEE Robotics and Automation conferences.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Biological robots and modular robotics, especially on system design and locomotion control
  • Marine automation, digitalization and ship intelligence
  • Artificial intelligence, machine learning and relate applications
  • Hybrid modelling and co-simulation

 

ACADEMIC MEMBERSHIP AND OTHER MEMBERSHIPS 

2019 Member of Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences(NTVA)

2012 IEEE Senior member 

2011-2016 Gift Professorship supported by Norwegian Centre of Expertise 

2019-2022 Elected board member from NTNU for SFI Offshore Mechatronics 

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE (2000-Present)

01/2016-present, Professor, Department of Ocean Operations and Civil Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway

04/2011-12/2015, Professor,  Faculty of Maritime Technology and Operations, Aalesund University College, Norway

04/2011-03/2016, Gift Professorship, Norwegian Centre of Expertise

02/2004-3/2011, Postdoctoral research follow/ Lecturer at the Institute of Technical Aspects of Multimodal Systems, Department of Computer Science, University of Hamburg, Germany.

 

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE (2007-Present, partly)

2015-2022,  Key applicant, Centers for Research-based Innovation (SFI) project, “Marine operations Centre for Research Based Innovation”, our department as the coordinator of this SFI. (Total budget: 190 Million NOK).

2015-2022, Key member in WP3 and WP4, Centers for Research-based Innovation (SFI) project “Offshore Mechatronics”. (Total budget:190 Million NOK).

2020-2023, PI of IKTPLUSS project “Remote Control Centre for Autonomous Ship Support (AuReCo)”, Project partners: Harbin Engineering University, Vard Electro AS, Offshore Simulation Centre, Ålesund Kunnskapspark. (Total budget: 9 M NOK).

2020-2023, Partner of Innovation project in the business section-MAROFF IPN “Development of a Novel Process for the Application of Krill as Alternative protein Source in Human Nutrition”, Project partners: Møreforsking Ålesund AS, Rimfrost, Universitet i Bergen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Møreforsking Molde AS. (Total budget: 9 M NOK).

2018-2022, PI of Knowledge-building Project for Industry-MAROFF KPN  “Digital Twins for Vessel Life Cycle Service (TwinShip)”, Project partners: DNV GL, NTNU, Rolls Royce Marine, Ålesund Kunnskapspark AS (ÅKP) and SINTEF Aalesund. (Total budget 32 M).

2019-2021, PI of Innovation project in the business section-MAROFF IPN “Towards Ship Autonomy in Harbour Manoeuvring and Intelligent Docking”, Project partners: Offshore Simulation Centre, NTNU Aalesund, Rolls-Royce Marine AS.(Total budget 10M NOK).

2018-2020, Key member of Integrated Technologies Long-term Deployment of Robotic Underwater platforms (INTENDU) (EU MarTERA).

2018-2020, PI of Innovation project in the business section-MAROFF IPN “Riser Operation Replacement Optimization (RORO)”, Project partners: Offshore Simulation Centre, NTNU Aalesund, Subsea 7 AS, AKER solution AS.(Total budget 9M NOK).

2018-2019, PI of RFFMIDT project “On-Board Augmented Simulator”, Project partners: Offshore Simulation Center. (Total budget 1.6 M NOK).

2016-2017,  PI of GCE Blue Innovation grant project “Virtual prototyping system winch”, Project partners include Seaonics AS and Offshore Simulation Centre. (Budget: 800 K NOK).2017-2018,  PI pf  RFFMIDT project “An Integrated Sensor Fusion System for Fatigue and Awareness Assessment in Demanding Marine Operation”, Project partners: Offshore Simulation Center (Total budget: 1.6 M NOK).

2014-2016, PI of Innovation project in the business section-MAROFF “Next Generation Simulator for Marine Crane Design and Operations-Virtual Crane Prototyping System”, Project partners: Rolls-Royce Marine AS, Offshore Simulation Centre (Total budget: 5.4 M NOK).

2016-2017,  Project coordinator, RFFMIDT project “An Approach toward Optimal Control of Ship Maneuvering in Offshore Operations”, Project partners: Rolls-Royce Marine AS, Offshore Simulation Center, (Total budget: 1.0 M NOK).

2014-2015, PI of RFFMIDT project “A UAV SAR System for Oil Spill Detection in the Arctic”, Project number: 235283 (Total budget: 1.0 M NOK).

2012-2013, PI of Regional pre-project (Forprosjekt-RFFMIDT),  “A Novel Climbing Robot System for Ship Anti-fouling, Cleaning and Inspection”.

2012-2013, PI of Innovation project in the business section-MAROFF, ES486092, “A Novel Integrated Anti-sway System for Rolls-Royce Marine Shipboard Cranes”.

2012-2013, PI of Innovation project in the business section-MAROFF, ES486092, “A Flexible and Common Control Architecture for Rolls-Royce Marine Cranes and Robotic Arms”.

2007-2010, PI of the project “Biologically Inspired Modular Climbing Caterpillar Robot Using Passive Adhesion” [Funded by Germany DFG, No.U4604-DFG-10-01]

 

HONOURS

  • Finalist for Best Conference of 2020 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation (ICMA 2020).
  • Best Technical Paper of CLAWAR 2015, 18th International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots and the Support Technologies for Mobile Machines, Hangzhou, China.
  • Best Conference Paper in Information of 2014 IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation (ICIA2014).
  • Best Student Paper of 2014 IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation (ICIA2014).
  • Best Conference Paper of 2008 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, Xi’an, China.
  • Finalist for Best Student Paper of IEEE BioRob 2014 of 5th IEEE RAS & EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob), São Paulo, Brazil. 2014
  • Finalist for Best Student Conference Paper of ICIA2008, Zhangjiajie, Hunan, China.
  • Finalist for Best Conference Paper of 2007 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Finalist for Best Conference Paper of 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics, Kunming, China.

 

SELECTED EDITORIAL WORK 

  • 2022- Associate Editor, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine
  • 2022- Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering
  • 2021- Technical Editor, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics
  • 2021- Associate Editor, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
  • 2021- Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems
  • 2021- Guest Editor of “Special Issue on Intelligent Transportation Systems in Epidemic Areas” with IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.

 

CURRENT PHD CANDIDATES

Tongtong Wang. Intelligent and flexible domain models for digital twins of maritime design and operation. Supervision with Associate Prof. Guoyuan Li  and Prof. Vilmar Æsøy (NTNU Aalesund).

Qin Liang. Digital Twin driven Propulsion System Health Monitoring and Performance Optimization. Supervision with Prof. Vilmar Æsøy (NTNU Aalesund).

Maximiliano Crescitell. Multisensor Fusion for Modelling Dynamic Marine Operation Environment. Supervision with Associate Prof. Lars Christian Gansel (NTNU Aalesund). 

Peihua Han. Data-based maintenance for prediction of ship propulsion performance and reliability. Supervision with Associate Prof. Guoyuan Li (NTNU Aalesund) and Dr. Stian Skjong(SINTEF OCEAN). 

Baiheng Wu. Synthesis of Human-in-the-Loop Control in Ship Intelligence. Main supervisor Associate Prof. Guoyuan Li (Mechatronics lab, NTNU Aalesund), co supervisors: Prof. Houxiang Zhang and Prof. Hans Petter Hildre. 

Motoyasu Kanazawa. Model-based Control and Optimization for Ship Maneuvering in Complex Spatial environments. Co-supervision Associate Prof. Guoyuan Li (NTNU).

Chunlin Wang. Data Analysis and Modelling for On-board Support of Marine Operations. Main supervisor Associate Prof. Guoyuan Li, co-supervision: Prof. Houxiang Zhang, Associate Prof. Ottar Osen (NTNU), and Associate Prof. Torodd Skjerve Nord (NTNU).

Lene Æsøy. Hybrid Energy Systems for Ocean Farming Value Chain Optimization, Associate Prof. Ann Rigmor Nerheim (NTNU), Associate Prof. Henry Piehl (NTNU), Prof. Houxiang Zhang

Zizheng Liu, Anti-swing Control of Ship-mounted Crane, Co-supervision Prof. Hans Petter Hildre, Prof. Guoyuan Li (NTNU).

Sihan Gao. Modelling and simulation of the farm environment in sea-based salmon production, Associate Prof. Lars Christian Gansel (NTNU), Associate Prof. Guoyuan Li (NTNU), and Prof. Houxiang Zhang.

Sunghun Hong, Dynamic Analysis of a Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Installation, Associate Prof. Karl Henning Halse (NTNU), Associate Prof. Torodd S. Nord (NTNU), Prof. Houxiang Zhang.

 

GRADUATED DOCTORAL CANDIDATES

Robert Skulstad. Data-based Ship Motion Prediction in Offshore Operations. Supervision with Thor I. Fossen (NTNU), Bjørnar Vik (Kongsberg Marine AS), 2021 (On time). 

Pierre Major. Data-driven Models for Multipurpose Rapid Prototyping. Supervision with Prof. Hans Petter Hildre (NTNU Aalesund), 2021 (six months earlier than schedule).

Lars Ivar Hatledal. Protocols and Standard for Integration of Simulation Models and Co-simulation. Supervision with Geir Hovland (UiA), Arne Styve (NTNU Aalesund), 2021 (on time) .

Thiago Gabriel Monteiro. A Cross-modal Integrated Sensor Fusion System for Fatigue and Awareness Assessment in Demanding Marine Operations. Supervision with Charlotte Skourup (Head of R&D, ABB), 2021 (two months earlier than schedule).

Andre Ellefsen. Smart Marine Operation and Maintenance of Ships- Conditional based Decision Support. Supervision with Vilmar Æsøy (NTNU Aalesund), Sergey Ushakov (NTNU Trondheim), 2020 (two months earlier than schedule) .

Xu Cheng. Sensitivity analysis and quality assessment of ANN models for ship motion prediction.  Supervision with Hans Petter Hildre, Guoyuan Li (NTNU Aalesund), 2020 (three months earlier than schedule).

Yingguang Chu. Virtual prototyping simulator for marine operation systems – product and system design and operational applications. Supervision with Vilmar Æsøy (NTNU Aalesund), Sören Ehlers (TUHH), 2018 (on time).

Cong Liu. Multimodal Product Design-A Development of Engineering Design Models in Systematic Approach. Supervision with Hans Petter Hildre (NTNU Aalesund), Terje Rølvåg (NTNU), 2016 (on time).

Filippo Sanfilippo. Alternative and Flexible Control Methods for Robotic Manipulators.  main supervisor Kristin Y. Pettersen (NTNU), 2015 (on time).

Guoyuan Li. Hierarchical Control of Limbless Locomotion Using a Bio-inspired CPG Model, main supervisor Jianwei Zhang (UHH), 2013 (on time).

Junhao Xiao. Planar Segments Based Three-dimensional Robotic Mapping in Outdoor Environments. main supervisor Jianwei Zhang (UHH), 2013 (on time).

 
 

Detail information could be found from Intelligent Systems Lab.

https://www.ntnu.edu/ihb/intelligent-systems-lab

http://org.ntnu.no/intelligentsystemslab/index.html

 

Scientific, academic and artistic work

Displaying a selection of activities. See all publications in the database

Journal publications