Overview
Background
- Dr Nguyen is a Lecturer in Robotics at the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, The University of Queensland. His research focuses on advancing autonomous robot capabilities in complex, large-scale environments through 1) principled and scalable fusion of complementary sensing modalities with distilled prior knowledge from learning processes for localisation & mapping, and 2) cooperative strategies for multi-robot systems. These research directions address challenging scenarios such as inspection, exploration, and manipulation, where robust localisation & mapping form a solid foundation upon which collaborative schemes can unlock new levels of efficiency and scalability.
- Dr Nguyen was previously a Research Assistant Professor at the Centre for Advanced Robotics Technology Innovation (CARTIN), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), following the Wallenberg–NTU Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship, where he led collaborative research efforts between NTU and KTH Royal Institute of Technology. He received his PhD from the School of EEE, NTU, with the best thesis (Doctoral Innovation Award) in 2020. He graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) from Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology in 2014. He is an active member of IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), and is currently an Associate Editor of IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L) in the area of Localisation & Mapping.
Availability
- Dr Thien-Minh Nguyen is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor (Honours) of Automation and Control Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology
- Doctor of Philosophy of Control Systems, Robotics and Automation, Nanyang Technological University
Research impacts
Dr Nguyen has been active in developing novel localization, mapping, and sensor fusion methods for robotic applications. He has also developed several high-quality datasets that support the broader research community. During his fellowship at KTH and NTU, Dr Nguyen led a collaborative effort across three universities to develop MCD, a complex, large-scale dataset spanning three distinct campuses in Eurasia. The dataset features three survey-grade prior maps, continuous-time ground truth with centimetre-level accuracy, and tens of thousands of annotated LiDAR point clouds, supporting research in SLAM and semantic segmentation. He also developed CARIC, a lightweight digital twin model designed to benchmark cooperative inspection methods for heterogeneous aerial robot swarms.
Over the years, Dr Nguyen’s work has been published in leading robotics and computer vision venues, including:
- IEEE Transactions on Robotics (T-RO)
- IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L)
- International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR)
- IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
- IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
- Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR)
Dr Nguyen is a frequent reviewer for T-RO, RA-L, IJRR, ICRA, and IROS. He serves as an Associate Editor for RA-L in the area of Localization and Mapping and has held similar roles for ICRA 2025 and 2026.
Works
Search Professor Thien-Minh Nguyen’s works on UQ eSpace
2019
Conference Publication
Integrated UWB-vision approach for autonomous docking of UAVs in GPS-denied environments
Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Nguyen, Thien Hoang, Cao, Muqing, Qiu, Zhirong and Xie, Lihua (2019). Integrated UWB-vision approach for autonomous docking of UAVs in GPS-denied environments. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, Canada, 20-24 May 2019. Washington, DC, United States: IEEE Computer Society. doi: 10.1109/icra.2019.8793851
2018
Conference Publication
An integrated localization-navigation scheme for distance-based docking of UAVs
Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Qiu, Zhirong, Cao, Muqing, Nguyen, Thien Hoang and Xie, Lihua (2018). An integrated localization-navigation scheme for distance-based docking of UAVs. 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Madrid, Spain, 1-5 October 2018. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/iros.2018.8594251
2018
Conference Publication
Model-free approach for sensor network localization with noisy distance measurement
Fang, Xu, Wang, Chen, Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Xie, Lihua (2018). Model-free approach for sensor network localization with noisy distance measurement. 15th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV), Singapore, Singapore, 18-21 November 2018. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/icarcv.2018.8581124
2018
Conference Publication
Post-mission autonomous return and precision landing of UAV
Nguyen, Thien Hoang, Cao, Muqing, Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Xie, Lihua (2018). Post-mission autonomous return and precision landing of UAV. 15th International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (ICARCV), Singapore, Singapore, 18-21 November 2018. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/icarcv.2018.8581117
2018
Conference Publication
Robust target-relative localization with ultra-wideband ranging and communication
Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Zaini, Abdul Hanif, Wang, Chen, Guo, Kexin and Xie, Lihua (2018). Robust target-relative localization with ultra-wideband ranging and communication. 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 21-25 May 2018. Washington, DC, United States: IEEE Computer Society. doi: 10.1109/icra.2018.8460844
2018
Conference Publication
Correlation flow: robust optical flow using kernel cross-correlators
Wang, Chen, Ji, Tete, Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Xie, Lihua (2018). Correlation flow: robust optical flow using kernel cross-correlators. 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 21-25 May 2018. Washington, DC, United States: IEEE Computer Society. doi: 10.1109/icra.2018.8460569
2018
Conference Publication
Least-square based recursive optimization for distance-based source localization
Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Xie, Lihua (2018). Least-square based recursive optimization for distance-based source localization. 2018 IEEE 14th International Conference on Control and Automation (ICCA), Anchorage, AK, United States, 12-15 June 2018. Piscataway, NJ, United States: IEEE Computer Society. doi: 10.1109/icca.2018.8444244
2018
Conference Publication
Barrier coverage by heterogeneous sensor network with input saturation
Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Li, Xiuxian and Xie, Lihua (2018). Barrier coverage by heterogeneous sensor network with input saturation. 2017 11th Asian Control Conference (ASCC), Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, 17 - 20 December 2017. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/ascc.2017.8287433
2017
Conference Publication
Ultra-wideband aided fast localization and mapping system
Wang, Chen, Zhang, Handuo, Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Xie, Lihua (2017). Ultra-wideband aided fast localization and mapping system. 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Vancouver, BC, Canada, 24-28 September 2017. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/iros.2017.8205968
2016
Conference Publication
An ultra-wideband-based multi-UAV localization system in GPS-denied environments
Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Zaini, Abdul Hanif, Guo, Kexin and Xie, Lihua (2016). An ultra-wideband-based multi-UAV localization system in GPS-denied environments. International Micro Air Vehicle Competition and Conference 2016, Beijing, China, 17-21 October 2016. International Micro Air Vehicles, Conferences and Competitions.
2016
Conference Publication
Relative localization for quadcopters using ultrawideband sensors
Guo, Kexin, Qiu, Zhirong, Meng, Wei, Nguyen, Thien Minh and Xie, Lihua (2016). Relative localization for quadcopters using ultrawideband sensors. International Micro Air Vehicle Competition and Conference 2016, Beijing, China, 17-21 October 2016. International Micro Air Vehicles, Conferences and Competitions.
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Thien-Minh Nguyen is:
- Available for supervision
Looking for a supervisor? Read our advice on how to choose a supervisor.
Media
Enquiries
Contact Dr Thien-Minh Nguyen directly for media enquiries about:
- AI
- Robotics
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