14th IFAC Conference on Control Applications in Marine Systems, Robotics, and Vehicles CAMS 2022

The 14th IFAC Conference on Control Applications in Marine Systems, Robotics, and
Vehicles (CAMS 2022) took place in Kongens Lyngby, Denmark, September 14-16, 2022,
and was organized by the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in cooperation with the
Danish Automation Society, the national member organization for Denmark in the IFAC, and
with the Danish Maritime, the national maritime industry association.
CAMS returned to where it all began, continuing the successful series of previous editions
held in Lyngby (Denmark, 1989), Genoa (Italy, 1992), Trondheim (Norway, 1995), Fukuoka
(Japan, 1998), Glasgow (UK, 2001), Ancona (Italy, 2004), Bol (Croatia, 2007), Rostock
(Germany, 2010), Osaka (Japan, 2013), Trondheim (Norway, 2016), Opatija (Croatia,
2018), Daejeon (Republic of Korea, 2019), and Oldenburg (Germany, 2021 - virtually). In
this successful story, it is also necessary to remember that, in 2016, the IFAC Technical
Committee on Marine Systems decided to modify the original acronym CAMS, namely
“Control Applications in Marine Systems”, into a conference on “Control Applications in
Marine Systems, Robotics and Vehicles”. This was done through the amalgamation of the
IFAC Conferences on Control Applications in Marine Systems (CAMS), Manoeuvring and
Control of Marine Craft (MCMC), and the IFAC Workshop on Navigation, Guidance and
Control of Underwater Vehicles (NGCUV).
14th IFAC CAMS was the right opportunity to address the crucial marine issues which we
are called to face shortly. In the marine and maritime sector, sustainability is a major and
urgent priority for society as a whole. This challenge will require unprecedented efforts and,
at the same time, presents enormous opportunities for innovation and transformative
solutions to design the future of the maritime world. Marine autonomy and autonomous
systems, both on the water surface and below, have accelerated to an extent where it may
be possible to deliver credible solutions within the next years, enabled by the breadth of the
advancement of technologies and new research trends concerning the development of
novel human-machine paradigms for seamless interaction between human operators and
autonomous marine systems. In such transformation, marine automation and control are
certainly of great importance, and the maritime community is called to cover a pivotal role.
14th IFAC CAMS reflected these trends, both in the plenary talks and invited and regular
contributions. During the three days of the conference, 79 high-quality papers, selected after
a thorough peer review process, were presented in the program – 30 of them in 6 invited
sessions proposed by our colleagues, while the rest were spread over 9 regular sessions.
These papers presented the work of more than 280 authors from 21 countries worldwide.
Almost 80% of the authors were from Europe, while the remaining authors were equally
divided between America (United States of America, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina), Asia
(South Korea, China, and Japan), and Australia. To strengthen the interaction between the
maritime industry and academia, CAMS 2022 promoted an industrial day as an integral part
of the technical program. In detail, on September 15th, the conference offered, as a novelty,
two industrial plenary talks and two industrial sessions addressing the topics of
decarbonization and autonomous marine robotics. The program also included two other
invited keynotes by distinguished academics in the areas of surface ship autonomy and its
adaptation. The interesting technical sessions gave the participants the opportunity to
present their beyond state-of-the-art research in the field of control systems applied to
marine systems, marine robotics, and vehicles, and to share the knowledge and experience
of world-renowned scientists and experts in many exciting topics of the marine and maritime
sector.
14th IFAC CAMS would never have seen the light without the impassioned enthusiasm and
perseverance of many people. Great thanks are due to the International Program Committee
(IPC) members for reviewing the papers, and all the more than 150 reviewers who assisted
and helped them to maintain the high-quality level of CAMS 2022. Sincere gratitude is also
devoted to the members of the National Organising Committee (NOC) for the successful
organisation of the event, to all the invited plenary speakers for their magnificent
presentations, and to all the sponsors whose generous support made this event possible.
Last but not least, a special mention goes to all attendees for physically participating in and
contributing to this event, hoping they enjoyed the familiar atmosphere, which stimulated
intensive and successful discussions.