Kristin PETTERSEN (Norway)
Biography
Kristin Y. Pettersen is a Professor of Engineering Cybernetics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and Adjunct Professor at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment. She co-founded the subsea robotics company Eelume AS, where she was CEO 2015-2016 and is now a board member. She was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant in 2020 and received the IEEE CSS 2020 Hendrik W. Bode Lecture Prize. She is an IEEE CSS Distinguished Lecturer, a Fellow of IEEE, a member of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences, and a member of the Academy of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters.
Her main research interests are in the development of methodologies for the analysis and control of autonomous robots, with an emphasis on marine robotics and snake robotics.
Plenary: Autonomous Marine Robots
In this talk, I will discuss how we can achieve truly autonomous robots that can explore the vast ocean space.
Our research started with our curiosity about terrestrial snakes and the corresponding snake robots, which led to a new class of marine robots. We leveraged nonlinear control theory to analyze and understand, and thus to design and control, efficient robots for autonomous marine operations. I will discuss the motivation and foundations of our research on snake robots and how this led to a new class of marine robots in the subsea industry.
Finally, I will present recent results demonstrating how this new class of marine robots may hold the key to achieving energy autonomy.