Prof. Ackermann, vision-based navigation and the PG master’s degree programme at HfT Stuttgart

ABSTRACT

The two topics of the article seem to have absolutely nothing to do with each other and, as can be expected in a contribution in honor and memory of Prof. Fritz Ackermann, they are linked in his person. Vision-based Navigation was the focus of the doctoral thesis written by the author, the 29th and last PhD thesis supervised by Prof. Ackermann. The International Master’s Program Photogrammetry and Geoinformatics, which the author established with colleagues at Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences (HfT Stuttgart) in 1999, was a consequence of Prof. Ackermann’s benevolent promotion of international knowledge transfer in teaching. Both topics are reflected in this article; they provide further splashes of color in Prof. Ackermann’s oeuvre.

KEYWORDS:

• Vision-based navigation
• visual odometry
• photogrammetry and geoinformatics
• international master’s degree program

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael Hahn

Michael Hahn is Professor for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing at Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences, Stuttgart, Germany. He studied Geodesy at the University of Karlsruhe from 1978 to 1983. From 1986 to 1990 he was Assistant of Prof. Ackermann and until 1998 Senior Lecturer at the IfP. He received his PhD degree from the University of Stuttgart under the supervision of Prof. Fritz Ackermann, Prof. Wolfgang Förstner and Prof. Dieter Fritsch. From 1996 to 1997 he was ARC Research Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the Space Centre for Satellite Navigation, Queensland Univ. of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. In 1998, he joined Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences, became Course Director of the International Master’s Program in Photogrammetry and Geoinformatics, served as Vice President for Science, Research and Internationalization from 2001 to 2007, and subsequently directed the competence center Geodesy and Geoinformatics. In 2015, he was appointed a member of the Baden-Württemberg Center of Applied Research BW-CAR. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia awarded him an honorary professorship in 2002, the University of Tehran, Iran, an adjunct professorship in 2015.