Thor I. Fossen

Current research interests include:

Robot and Vehicle Dynamics:: Mathematical modeling of robots and vehicles, including multi-body systems, marine craft hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, and vehicle/vessel simulators.
Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC):: Autonomous and intelligent GNC systems for field robots, marine craft, aircraft, and unmanned vehicles (UAV, AUV, USV). Design of autopilots, trajectory tracking, and path-following control systems.
#Attitude control #Path following
Inertial Navigation Systems (INS):: GNSS- and compass-denied navigation, aiding techniques, attitude estimation on SO(3), sensor fusion and state estimation, nonlinear observer theory, and Kalman filtering.
#Attitude estimation #Sea-state estimation
Cybersecurity:: Real-time encryption of feedback control and sensory signals, cryptology, stream chiper, and authentication methods. Resilence against navigation spoofing and hijacking of autonomous vehicles.
#Cybersecurity

Professor Fossen is a recognized cyberneticist, marine engineer, and IEEE Fellow specializing in the interdisciplinary fields of automatic control, computer science, cybersecurity, aerospace engineering, marine technology, and inertial navigation systems. With academic roots at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), he has been a pioneering force in the guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) systems of ships, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), Uncrewed Surface Vehicles (USVs), and Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). His teaching portfolio includes mathematical modeling of aircraft, marine craft, and autonomous vehicles (drones), as well as advanced courses in guidance, navigation and control systems.

As a Fulbright scholar at the University of Washington and visiting professor at globally renowned institutions like the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), University of California, San Diego (UCSD), University of Porto, Aalborg University, and the Technical University of Denmark, Professor Fossen has expanded the horizons of GNC systems for autonomous vehicles. He is a co-founder of Marine Cybernetics AS, now part of DNV, and ScoutDI AS, a company at the forefront of developing tethered drone systems for situational awareness in confined spaces and industrial settings. Elected to the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences, Professor Fossen's work reflects the value of interdisciplinary research in technology and cybernetics.

Wiley 2021 (2ed)

Wiley 2011 (1ed)

Wiley 1994

Springer 2017

Springer 2012

Springer 1999

Fossen's past work includes holding several patents on hardware-in-the-loop testing technology for marine and offshore systems, along with a patent for weather-optimal positioning control of marine vessels. Currently, Fossen has a patent pending for UAV landing systems. Fossen was awarded the Automatica Prize Paper Award at the IFAC World Congress in 2002 for outstanding contributions to the field of automatic control, and the Arch T. Colwell Merit Paper Award in 2008 at the SAE World Congress for excellence in automotive engineering.