Scope

The main objectives of the IFAC TC Marine Systems are to promote fruitful discussions on theoretical and practical issues related to the design, development, and operation of marine systems. Namely, those that emerge out of solid theoretical research in combination with experimentation and are key to the operation of advanced navigation, guidance, and control systems for surface ships, offshore units, and marine robot,s as well as mission control systems for a vast number of scientific and commercial applications. 

Specific topics include:

    • Ship manoeuvring
    • Ship autopilots
    • Ship roll stabilization techniques
    • Surface ship track control
    • Dynamic positioning & position mooring systems for ships & platforms
    • High speed vessels
    • Automation of ships systems
    • Offshore systems modelling and control
    • System identification for marine systems
    • Adaptive and robust control in marine systems
    • Nonlinear and optimal control in marine systems
    • Fault tolerant control and fault handling for marine systems and platforms
    • Intelligent marine control systems
    • Marine traffic systems & intelligent marine transportation systems
    • Maritime safety and security for ports and ships and risk assessment
    • Information systems and methods in marine applications
    • Thrusters and propulsion systems Modeling, identification, and simulations in marine systems
    • Navigation, guidance & control of marine vessels
    • Navigation, guidance, and control of autonomous surface and underwater vehicles (ASVs and AUVs)
    • Control of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs)
    • Vision systems
    • Environment monitoring and protection
    • Sensors and sensor integration in autonomous robots
    • Operational safety
    • Networked cooperative navigation and control
    • Distributed/decentralized intelligent control
    • Cooperative underwater navigation and control under severe communication constraints
    • Architectures for teams of robotic marine vehicles
    • Applications of marine vessels and robots to environmental monitoring, mapping and surveillance, search and rescuing operations, marine habitat mapping, marine biology and geology, and hydrographic exploration
    • Virtual reality in marine applications
    • Vision, recognition, and reconstruction for underwater applications

Besides the above objectives, the TC Marine System aims to:

    • Foster the organization of international events (workshops, special sessions, conferences, and summer schools) in the above and related areas.
    • Strengthen the links between academia and the industry.
    • Contribute to the dissemination of technical activities (related to marine systems) to the student population and the public at large (outreach activities).