Background and activities
Thor I. Fossen is professor of guidance, navigation and control at the NTNU Department of Engineering Cybernetics. His educational background covers marine technology, aeronautics and astronautics, computer science, automatic control and cybernetics.
Fossen's research fields include estimation theory, automated situational awareness, autonomy, mathematical modeling and simulation of aircraft, marine craft, unmanned vehicles, guidance, navigation and control systems. This includes sensor fusion and observers for navigation systems (inertial and camera-based systems). He has published 400 conference and journal papers and authored 6 international textbooks, see
Fossen is one of the founders of the company Marine Cybernetics AS (2002), which was aquired by DNV GL. Fossen is one of the founders of the company SCOUT Drone Inspection (2017) and he is involved in several high-tech companies in Trondheim.
Associate Editor:
- Control Engineering Practice, IFAC
- Journal of Ship Research, SNAME
Teaching:
- TTK 4190 Guidance and Control of Vehicles (Master course)
- TK 8109 Advanced Topics in Guidance and Navigation (PhD course)
Awards/Honors:
- IEEE Fellow, 2016
- Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences, 1998
- Arch T. Colwell Merit Award i 2008 at the SAE World Congress for Nonlinear Observer for Vehicle Velocity Estimation co-authored by L. Imsland, T. A. Johansen, J. C. Kalkkuhl and A. Suissa.
- Automatica Best Paper Prize i 2002 for "Nonlinear Passive Weather Optimal Positioning Control (WOPC) System for Ships and Rigs: Experimental Results", Automatica, vol. 37, 2001, pages 701-715 co-authored by Dr. Jann Peter Strand.
- IFAC MCMC'15 Best Regular Paper Award for a paper entitled "A Virtual Vertical Reference Concept for GNSS/INS Applications at the Sea Surface" together with Torleiv H. Bryne and Tor Arne Johansen.
- ExxonMobil award to PhD candidates in 2000, 2003 og 2005 for best PhD theses at NTNU
Appointments:
- 2013-present. Co-director/Key Scientist, NTNU Centre for Autonomous Marine Operations and Systems
- 2017-present. Vice President, SCOUT Drone Inspection AS.
- 2017-present. Associate Editor, IFAC Journal "Control Engineering Practice" (CEP)
- 2018-present. Associate Editor, "Journal of Ship Research", SNAME
- 2018-2019. Associate Editor, International Conference on Unmanned Aerial Systems (ICUAS'18)
- 2018 Associate editor at large, IEEE Conference of Control Technology and Applications (CCTA'18)
- 2018 Industry Chair, IEEE Conference of Control Technology and Applications (CCTA'18)
- 2014-2017. Medlem av styringskomiteen til the International Conference on Unmanned Aerial Systems (ICUAS)
- 2017-present. Associate Editor, IFAC Journal "Control Engineering Practice" (CEP)
- 2018 Industry Chair, IEEE Conference of Control Technology and Applications (CCTA'18)
- 2014-2017. Member of the steering committee of the International Conference on Unmanned Aerial Systems (ICUAS).
- 2016 Vice-chair, IFAC CAMS’16, Norway
- 2013 Otto Mønsted Visiting Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark
- 2008-2012 Head of Automatic Control, NTNU Centre for Ships and Ocean Structures
- 2002-2012 Key Scientist, NTNU Centre for Ships and Ocean Structures
- 2002-2008 Vice President R&D and Co-Founder of Marine Cybernetics AS
- 2004-2007 Senior scientific advisor, SINTEF Electronics and Cybernetics, Trondheim
- 2002-2010 Deputy Head, NTNU Department of Engineering Cybernetics
- 2002-2003 Senior scientific advisor, Kongsberg Maritime AS
- 2002-2006 Associate Editor of Automatica
- 2002 Visiting Professor, Department of Applied Mechanichs and Engineering Sciences, UCSD, San Diego, USA
- 1999 Visiting Professor, Department of Control Engineering, Aalborg University, Denmark
- 1996-2000 Chair, IEEE Oceanic Engineering and Control Systems Joint Society Chapter of the Norway Section
- 1999-2002 Senior scientific advisor, MARINTEK, Trondheim
- 1998 Chair, International Program Committee of IFAC CAMS'98, Fukuoka, Japan
- 1995 Chair, National Organizing Committee (NOC) of IFAC CAMS'95, Norway
- 1995-2002 Senior scientific advisor, ABB, Oslo
- 1991-1998 Senior scientific advisor, SINTEF Automatic Control, Trondheim
Scientific, academic and artistic work
Displaying a selection of activities. See all publications in the database
Journal publications
- (2018) A virtual vertical reference concept for aided inertial navigation at the sea surface. Control Engineering Practice. vol. 70.
- (2018) eXogenous Kalman Filter (XKF) for Visualization and Motion Prediction of Ships using Live Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) Data. Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 39 (4).
- (2018) Nonlinear Observer for Tightly Coupled Integrated Inertial Navigation Aided by RTK-GNSS Measurements. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology.
- (2018) Experimental validation of attitude and rate-sensor bias filter using range-difference measurements. Control Engineering Practice. vol. 73.
- (2018) Feedback Linearization Control for Systems with Mismatched Uncertainties via Disturbance Observers. Asian journal of control.
- (2018) Autonomous recovery of a fixed-wing UAV using a net suspended by two multirotor UAVs. Journal of Field Robotics. vol. 35 (5).
- (2018) Redundant MEMS-based Inertial Navigation using Nonlinear Observers. Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurement, and Control. vol. 140 (7).
- (2018) Attitude estimation by multiplicative exogenous Kalman filter. Automatica. vol. 95.
- (2017) Design of inertial navigation systems for marine craft with adaptive wave filtering aided by triple-redundant sensor packages. International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing. vol. 31 (4).
- (2017) Nonlinear observers for integrated INS\/GNSS navigation: implementation aspects. IEEE Control Systems. vol. 37 (3).
- (2017) Direct and Indirect Adaptive Integral Line-of-Sight Path-Following Controllers for Marine Craft Exposed to Ocean Currents. International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing. vol. 31 (4).
- (2017) Preface. Lecture notes in control and information sciences. vol. 474.
- (2017) Non-linear Observers for GNSS- and Camera-Aided Inertial Navigation of a Fixed-Wing UAV. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. vol. 26 (5).
- (2017) Nonlinear observer design for GNSS-aided inertial navigation systems with time-delayed GNSS measurements. Control Engineering Practice. vol. 60.
- (2017) Tracking of Ocean Surface Objects from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with a Pan/Tilt Unit using a Thermal Camera. Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems.
- (2017) Detection and tracking of floating objects using a UAV with thermal camera. Lecture notes in control and information sciences. vol. 474.
- (2017) The eXogenous Kalman Filter (XKF). International Journal of Control. vol. 90 (2).
- (2017) Nonlinear Observer for Tightly Integrated Inertial Navigation Aided by Pseudo-Range Measurements. Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurement, and Control. vol. 139 (1).
- (2017) Nonlinear Control with Swing Damping of a Multirotor UAV with Suspended Load. Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems. vol. 88 (2-4).
- (2017) Validation of nonlinear integrated navigation solutions. Annual Reviews in Control. vol. 43.
- (2016) People in Control. Control Systems Magazine. vol. 36 (3).
- (2016) Vision-aided nonlinear observer for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle navigation. Journal of Guidance Control and Dynamics. vol. 39 (8).
- (2016) Nonlinear Observer for Tightly Coupled Integration of Pseudorange and Inertial Measurements. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. vol. 24 (6).
- (2016) Three-stage filter for position estimation using pseudorange measurements. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems. vol. 52 (4).
- (2015) Experimental Verification of a Global Exponentially Stable Nonlinear Wave Encounter Frequency Estimator. Ocean Engineering. vol. 97.
- (2015) A virtual vertical reference concept for GNSS/INS applications at the sea surface. IFAC-PapersOnLine. vol. 48 (16).
- (2015) Line-of-Sight Path Following for Dubins Paths with Adaptive Sideslip Compensation of Drift Forces. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. vol. 23 (2).
- (2015) Automatic detection, classification and tracking of objects in the ocean surface from UAVs using a thermal camera. IEEE Aerospace Conference. Proceedings. vol. 2015-June.
- (2015) Path Following of Underwater Robots using Lagrange Multipliers. Robotics and Autonomous Systems. vol. 67.
- (2015) Autonomous net recovery of fixed-wing UAV with single-frequency carrier-phase differential GNSS. IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine. vol. 30 (5).
- (2014) On uniform semiglobal exponential stability (USGES) of proportional line-of-sight guidance laws. Automatica. vol. 50 (11).
- (2014) Globally Exponentially Stable Attitude and Gyro Bias Estimation with Application to GNSS/INS Integration. Automatica. vol. 51.
- (2014) Integral LOS Path Following for Curved Paths Based on a Monotone Cubic Hermite Spline Parametrization. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. vol. 22 (6).
- (2014) H∞ almost output synchronization for heterogeneous networks of introspective agents under external disturbances. Automatica. vol. 50 (4).
- (2013) Control Allocation - A Survey. Automatica. vol. 49 (5).
- (2013) Continuous-Curvature Path Generation using Fermat's Spiral. Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 34 (4).
- (2012) On the Boundedness Property of the Inertia Matrix and Skew-Symmetric Property of the Coriolis Matrix for Vehicle-Manipulator Systems. Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurement, and Control. vol. 134 (4).
- (2012) Attitude Estimation Using Biased Gyro and Vector Measurements With Time-Varying Reference Vectors. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control. vol. 57 (5).
- (2012) A Nonlinear 7-DOF Model for U-Tanks of Arbitrary Shape. Ocean Engineering. vol. 45.
- (2011) A Langrangian Approach to Nonlinear Modeling og Anti-Roll Tanks. Ocean Engineering. vol. 38 (2-3).
- (2011) Practical aspects of frequency-domain identification of dynamic models of marine structures fromhydrodynamic data. Ocean Engineering. vol. 38 (2-3).
- (2010) A nonlinear PDE formulation for offshore vessel pipeline installation. Ocean Engineering. vol. 37 (4).
- (2010) A Tutorial on Incremental Stability Analysis using Contraction Theory. Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 31 (3).
- (2009) Kalman Filtering for Positioning and Heading Control of Ships and Offshore Rigs. Control Systems Magazine. vol. 29 (6).
- (2009) A Matlab Toolbox for Parametric Identification of Radiation-Force Models of Ships and Offshore Structures. Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 30 (1).
- (2008) Genetic programming for the automatic design of controllers for a surface ship. IEEE transactions on intelligent transportation systems (Print). vol. 9.
- (2008) Straight-Line Target Tracking for Unmanned Surface Vehicles. Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 29 (4).
- (2008) Nonlinear vehicle side-slip estimation with friction adaptation. Automatica. vol. 44.
- (2008) Optimal constrained control allocation in marine surface vessels with rudders. Control Engineering Practice. vol. 16 (4).
- (2008) A Derivation of High-frequency Asymptotic Values of 3D Added Mass and Damping Based on Properties of The Cummins' Equation. Journal of Maritime Research. vol. 5 (1).
- (2008) Joint Identification of Infinite-Frequency Added Mass and Fluid-memory Models of Marine Structures. Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 29 (3).
- (2008) Time- vs. Frequency-domain Identification of Parametric Radiation Force Models for Marine Structures at Zero Speed. Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 29 (1).
- (2007) Nonlinear Container Ship Model for the Study of Parametric Roll Resonance. Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 28 (4).
- (2007) Path Following Control System for a Tanker Ship Model. Ocean Engineering. vol. 34.
- (2007) Hvor fort går det?. Automatisering & Industridata. vol. 16 (2).
- (2007) Passivity-based designs for synchronized path-following. Automatica. vol. 43 (9).
- (2007) On nonlinear unknown input observers - applied to lateral vehicle velocity estimation on banked roads. International Journal of Control. vol. 80 (11).
- (2007) Kinematic Models for Manoeuvring and Seakeeping of Marine Vessels. Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 28 (1).
- (2006) Formation control of marine surface vessels using the Null-space-Based behavioral control. Lecture notes in control and information sciences. vol. 336.
- (2006) Formation Control of Marine Surface Craft: A Lagrangian Approach. IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering. vol. 31 (3).
- (2006) Robust formation control of marine craft using Lagrange multipliers. Lecture notes in control and information sciences. vol. 336.
- (2006) Vehicle velocity estimation using nonlinear observers. Automatica. vol. 42.
- (2005) A Nonlinear Unified State-Space Model for Ship Maneuvering and Control in a Seaway. International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos in Applied Sciences and Engineering. vol. 15 (9).
- (2005) Genetic algorithms optimisation of decoupled Sliding Mode controllers: simulated and real results. Control Engineering Practice. vol. 13.
- (2005) Efficient optimal constrained control allocation via multiparametric programming. Journal of Guidance Control and Dynamics. vol. 28.
- (2005) Adaptive maneuvering, with experiments, for a model ship in a marine control laboratory. Automatica. vol. 41.
- (2004) Nonlinear Time-Domain Strip Theory Formulation for Low-Speed Maneuvering and Station-Keeping. Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 25 (4).
- (2004) Constrained nonlinear control allocation with singularity avoidance using sequential quadratic programming. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. vol. 12.
- (2004) Wave synchronizing crane control during water entry in offshore moonpool operations - Experimental results (Reprinted with permission from J. Oceanic Engineering, vol 29, pg 720-728). Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 25.
- (2004) Robust output maneuvering for a class of nonlinear systems. Automatica. vol. 40.
- (2004) A Nonlinear Ship Manoeuvering Model: Identification and adaptive control with experiments for a model ship. Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 25.
- (2003) Wave synchronizing crane control during water entry in offshore moonpool operations - experimental results. IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering. vol. 29.
- (2003) Fuel-efficient rudder and propeller control allocation for marine craft: Experiments with a model ship. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. vol. 11 (6).
- (2003) Wave synchronizing crane control during water entry in offshore moonpool operations - Experimental results. IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering. vol. 28.
- (2003) Fuel-efficient rudder and propeller control allocation for marine craft: Experiments with a model ship. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. vol. 11.
- (2002) Stabilization of fluid flows in channels and pipes. Tutorial on feedback control of flows, part I. Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 23 (3).
- (2002) Tutorial on feedback control of flows, Part II: Diagnostics and feedback control of mixing. Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 23 (4).
- (2001) Global Output Tracking Control of a Class of Euler-Lagrange Systems With Monotonic Nonlinearities in the Velocities. International Journal of Control. vol. 74 (7).
- (2001) Finite Element Modelling of Moored Vessels. Mathematical and Computer Modelling of Dynamical Systems. vol. 7 (1).
- (2001) A Theorem for UGAS and ULES of (Passive) Nonautonomous Systems: Robust Control of Mechanical Systems and Ships. International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control. vol. 11.
- (2001) Nonlinear Passive Weather Optimal Positioning Control (WOPC) System for Ships and Rigs: Experimental Results. Automatica. vol. 37 (5).
- (2000) Finite element modelling of mooring lines. Mathematics and Computers in Simulation. vol. 53.
- (2000) Developments in Ship Control Systems Design. World Superyacht Review.
- (2000) Nonlinear Passive Control and Observer Design for Ships. Modeling, Identification and Control.
- (2000) Preface : Special Section on Marine Systems. International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing. vol. 14 (4).
- (2000) Nonlinear Output Feedback Control of Underwater Vehicle Propellers using Feedback from Estimated Axial Flow Velocity. IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering. vol. 25 (2).
- (2000) A Separation Principle for Dynamic Positioning of Ships: Theoretical and Experimental Results. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. vol. 8 (2).
- (2000) Experimental Results from Supply Ship Autopilot Optimisation using Genetic Algorithms. Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control. vol. 22 (2).
- (2000) Ship Steering Control System Optimisation Using Genetic Algorithms. Control Engineering Practice. vol. 8.
- (2000) Onboard Sensor-Based Adaptive Control of Small UUVs in Very Shallow Water. International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing. vol. 14 (4).
- (2000) Underactuated Dynamic Positioning of a Ship - Experimental Results. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. vol. 8 (5).
- (2000) A Nonlinear Observer for Integration of GPS and Inertial Navigation Systems. Modeling, Identification and Control.
- (1999) Nonlinear control of ships minimizing the position tracking errors. Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 20 (3).
- (1999) A tutorial on nonlinear backstepping: applications to ship control. Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 20 (2).
- (1999) Passive nonlinear observer design for ships using Lyapunov methods: experimental results with a supply vessel. Automatica. vol. 35 (1).
- (1998) Nonlinear output feedback control of dynamically positioned ships using vectorial observer backstepping. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. vol. 6 (1).
- (1998) Nonlinear and adaptive backstepping designs for tracking control of ships. International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing.
- (1998) Robust Adaptive Ship Autopilot with Wave Filter and Integral Action. International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing.
- (1998) A passive output feedback controller with wave filter for marine vehicles. International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control.
- (1998) Design of Automatic Thruster Assisted Position Mooring Systems for Ships. Modeling, Identification and Control. vol. 1.
- (1996) Preface to the special section on control applications in marine systems. Control Engineering Practice. vol. 4 (3).
- (1996) Identification of dynamically positioned ships. Control Engineering Practice. vol. 4 (3).
- (1996) Design of a dynamic positioning system using model-based control. Control Engineering Practice. vol. 4 (3).
Books
- (2017) Sensing and Control for Autonomous Vehicles: Applications to Land, Water and Air Vehicles. Springer. 2017. ISBN 978-3-319-55371-9. Lecture notes in control and information sciences (-).
- (2012) Parametric Resonance in Dynamical Systems. Springer. 2012. ISBN 978-1-4614-1042-3.
- (2011) Handbook of Marine Craft Hydrodynamics and Motion Control. Wiley-Blackwell. 2011. ISBN 978-1-1199-9149-6.
- (2002) Marine Control Systems: Guidance, Navigation and Control of Ships, Rigs and Underwater Vehicles. 2002. ISBN 82-92356-00-2.
- (1999) New Directions in Nonlinear Observer Design. 1999.
- (1994) Guidance and control of ocean vehicles. 1994. ISBN 0-471-94113-1.
Part of book/report
- (2019) Modeling of Underwater Vehicles. Encyclopedia of Robotics.
- (2019) Guidance of Autnomous Underwater Vehicles. Encyclopedia of Robotics.
- (2017) Nonlinear Camera- and GNSS-aided INS for Fixed-Wing UAV using the eXogenous Kalman Filter. Sensing and Control for Autonomous Vehicles: Applications to Land, Water and Air Vehicles.
- (2017) Detection and Tracking of Floating Objects using an UAV with Thermal Camera. Sensing and Control for Autonomous Vehicles: Applications to Land, Water and Air Vehicles.
- (2016) Modeling and Control of Underwater Robotics. Springer Handbook of Robotics.
- (2016) Model-based Ship Motion Control Design. Compendium of Ships Hydrodynamics. Practical Tools and Application.
- (2016) Nonlinear Observer for Attitude, Position and Velocity: Theory and Experiments. Multisensor Attitude Estimation: Fundamental Concepts and Applications.
- (2016) Validation and Experimental Testing of Observers for Robust GNSS-Aided Inertial Navigation. Recent Advances in Robotic Systems.
- (2016) Hydrodynamic Models for Motion Control. Compendium of Ships Hydrodynamics. Practical Tools and Application.
- (2015) Mathematical Models of Ships and Underwater Vehicles. Encyclopedia of Systems and Control.
- (2012) Optimal Speed and Heading Control for Stabilization of Parametric Oscillations in Ships. Parametric Resonance in Dynamical Systems.
- (2012) Ship Model for Parametric Roll Incorporating the Effects of Time-Varying Speed. Parametric Resonance in Dynamical Systems.
- (2012) Nonlinear Maneuvering Theory and Path-Following Control. Marine Technology and Engineering : CENTEC Anniversary Book.
- (2012) Frequency Detuning Control by Doppler Shift. Parametric Resonance in Dynamical Systems.
- (2012) A U-Tank Control System for Ships in Parametric Roll Resonance. Parametric Resonance in Dynamical Systems.
- (2010) Motion Control of Marine Craft. The Control Handbook, Second Edition: Control System Applications, Second Edition.
- (2009) Guidance Laws for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles. Underwater Vehicles.
- (2009) A Survey of Control Allocation Methods for Underwater Vehicles. Underwater Vehicles.
- (2008) Nonlinear Observer for Vehicle Velocity with Friction and Road Bank Angle Adaptation - Validation and Comparison with an Extended Kalman Filter. SAE 2007 Transactions Journal of Passenger Cars: Mechanical Systems.
- (2006) Nonlinear Modelling, Identification, and Control of UUVs. Guidance and Control of Unmanned Marine Vehicles.
- (2005) Kinematics of Ship Motion. Ship motion control: course keeping and roll stabilisation using rudder and fins.
- (2005) Ship Kinetics. Ship motion control: course keeping and roll stabilisation using rudder and fins.
- (2000) Position and Velocity Observer Design. The Ocean Engineering Handbook.
- (2000) Weather Optimal Positioning Control. The Ocean Engineering Handbook.
- (2000) Design of Controllers for Positioning of Marine Vessels. The Ocean Engineering Handbook.
- (2000) Design of Controllers for Positioning of Marine Vessels. The Ocean Engineering Handbook.
- (1999) Nonlinear observer design for integration of DGPS and INS. New directions in nonlinear observer design.
Links
Competencies
- Technical cybernetics
- Simulation
- Hydrodynamics
- Parameter and state estimation
- Control technology
- AUV
- Cybernetics
- Robotics
- Intelligent systems
- Nonlinear control
- Theory of estimation
- Inertial Navigation Systems
- Dynamic Positioning
- Path Planning
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
- Marine cybernetics
- Aerodynamic
- ROV
- Autopilot
- Vehicle control
- Navigation
- Guidance systems
- Drones
- Underwater robotics
- Autonomous systems