Dr Thien-Minh Nguyen
Lecturer
School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering
Researcher biography
- 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.
Journal Articles
Ali, Waqas, Cai, Yixi, Jensfelt, Patric and Nguyen, Thien-Minh (2026). ProbPer-LiLo: probabilistic persistency modeling for life-long mapping. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 11 (3), 2530-2537. doi: 10.1109/LRA.2026.3653311
Liu, Fen, Yuan, Shenghai, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Meng, Wei and Xie, Lihua (2026). Aerial target encirclement and interception with noisy range. Automatica, 183 112600. doi: 10.1016/j.automatica.2025.112600
Hu, Tianxin, Xu, Xinhang, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Liu, Fen, Yuan, Shenghai and Xie, Lihua (2025). Tire wear aware trajectory tracking control for Multi-axle Swerve-drive Autonomous Mobile Robots. Journal of Automation and Intelligence, 4 (4), 243-253. doi: 10.1016/j.jai.2025.05.003
Chen, Siyu, Yuan, Shenghai, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Huang, Zhuyu, Shi, Chenyang, Jin, Jing and Xie, Lihua (2025). EGS-SLAM: RGB-D Gaussian Splatting SLAM with events. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 10 (10), 10003-10010. doi: 10.1109/lra.2025.3598665
Li, Jianping, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Cao, Muqing, Yuan, Shenghai, Hung, Tzu-Yi and Xie, Lihua (2025). Graph optimality-aware stochastic LiDAR bundle adjustment with progressive spatial smoothing. IEEE Transactions On Intelligent Transportation Systems, 26 (11), 19076-19091. doi: 10.1109/tits.2025.3597242
Cao, Muqing, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Yuan, Shenghai, Anastasiou, Andreas, Zacharia, Angelos, Papaioannou, Savvas, Kolios, Panayiotis, Panayiotou, Christos G., Polycarpou, Marios M., Xu, Xinhang, Zhang, Mingjie, Gao, Fei, Zhou, Boyu, Chen, Ben M. and Xie, Lihua (2025). Cooperative aerial robot inspection challenge: a benchmark for heterogeneous multi-uncrewed-aerial-vehicle planning and lessons learned. IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, 2-13. doi: 10.1109/mra.2025.3584341
Jin, Tongxing, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Xu, Xinhang, Yang, Yizhuo, Yuan, Shenghai, Li, Jianping and Xie, Lihua (2025). Robust loop closure by textual cues in challenging environments. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 10 (1), 812-819. doi: 10.1109/lra.2024.3511397
Xu, Xinhang, Yang, Yizhuo, Cao, Muqing, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Cao, Kun and Xie, Lihua (2024). A data-driven control method for ground locomotion on sloped terrain of a hybrid aerial-ground robot. Journal of Automation and Intelligence, 3 (4), 219-229. doi: 10.1016/j.jai.2024.08.001
Yang, Yizhuo, Yuan, Shenghai, Yang, Jianfei, Nguyen, Thien Hoang, Cao, Muqing, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Wang, Han and Xie, Lihua (2024). AV-FDTI: audio-visual fusion for drone threat identification. Journal of Automation and Intelligence, 3 (3), 144-151. doi: 10.1016/j.jai.2024.06.002
Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Xu, Xinhang, Jin, Tongxing, Yang, Yizhuo, Li, Jianping, Yuan, Shenghai and Xie, Lihua (2024). Eigen is all you need: efficient lidar-inertial continuous-time odometry with internal association. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 9 (6), 5330-5337. doi: 10.1109/lra.2024.3391049
Li, Jianping, Yuan, Shenghai, Cao, Muqing, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Cao, Kun and Xie, Lihua (2024). HCTO: Optimality-aware LiDAR inertial odometry with hybrid continuous time optimization for compact wearable mapping system. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 211, 228-243. doi: 10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2024.04.004
Cao, Muqing, Cao, Kun, Yuan, Shenghai, Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Xie, Lihua (2023). NEPTUNE: nonentangling trajectory planning for multiple tethered unmanned vehicles. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 39 (4), 2786-2804. doi: 10.1109/tro.2023.3264950
Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Duberg, Daniel, Jensfelt, Patric, Yuan, Shenghai and Xie, Lihua (2023). SLICT: multi-input multi-scale surfel-based lidar-inertial continuous-time odometry and mapping. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 8 (4), 2102-2109. doi: 10.1109/lra.2023.3246390
Lyu, Yang, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Liu, Liu, Cao, Muqing, Yuan, Shenghai, Nguyen, Thien Hoang and Xie, Lihua (2023). SPINS: A structure priors aided inertial navigation system. Journal of Field Robotics, 40 (4), 879-900. doi: 10.1002/rob.22161
Nguyen, Thien Hoang, Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Xie, Lihua (2022). Flexible and resource-efficient multi-robot collaborative visual-inertial-range localization. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 7 (2), 928-935. doi: 10.1109/lra.2021.3136286
Cao, Muqing, Cao, Kun, Li, Xiuxian, Yuan, Shenghai, Lyu, Yang, Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Xie, Lihua (2021). Distributed multi-robot sweep coverage for a region with unknown workload distribution. Autonomous Intelligent Systems, 1 (1) 13, 1-10. doi: 10.1007/s43684-021-00011-1
Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Yuan, Shenghai, Cao, Muqing, Lyu, Yang, Nguyen, Thien H. and Xie, Lihua (2021). NTU VIRAL: A visual-inertial-ranging-lidar dataset, from an aerial vehicle viewpoint. International Journal of Robotics Research, 41 (3), 270-280. doi: 10.1177/02783649211052312
Fang, Xu, Wang, Chen, Thien-Minh, Nguyen and Xie, Lihua (2021). Graph optimization approach to range-based localization. IEEE Transactions On Systems Man Cybernetics-Systems, 51 (11), 6830-6841. doi: 10.1109/tsmc.2020.2964713
Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Cao, Muqing, Yuan, Shenghai, Lyu, Yang, Nguyen, Thien Hoang and Xie, Lihua (2021). VIRAL-Fusion: a visual-inertial-ranging-lidar sensor fusion approach. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 38 (2), 958-977. doi: 10.1109/tro.2021.3094157
Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Yuan, Shenghai, Cao, Muqing, Lyu, Yang, Nguyen, Thien Hoang and Xie, Lihua (2021). MILIOM: tightly coupled multi-input Lidar-Inertia Odometry and Mapping. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 6 (3), 5573-5580. doi: 10.1109/lra.2021.3080633
Thien Hoang, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Nguyen and Xie, Lihua (2021). Range-focused fusion of camera-IMU-UWB for accurate and drift-reduced localization. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 6 (2), 1678-1685. doi: 10.1109/lra.2021.3057838
Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Qiu, Zhirong, Cao, Muqing, Nguyen, Thien Hoang and Xie, Lihua (2020). Single landmark distance-based navigation. IEEE Transactions On Control Systems Technology, 28 (5), 2021-2028. doi: 10.1109/tcst.2019.2916089
Nguyen, Thien Hoang, Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Xie, Lihua (2020). Tightly-coupled ultra-wideband-aided monocular visual SLAM with degenerate anchor configurations. Autonomous Robots, 44 (8), 1519-1534. doi: 10.1007/s10514-020-09944-7
Nguyen, Thien Hoang, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Cao, Muqing and Xie, Lihua (2020). Loosely-coupled ultra-wideband-aided scale correction for monocular visual odometry. Unmanned Systems, 8 (2), 179-190. doi: 10.1142/s2301385020500119
Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Qiu, Zhirong, Nguyen, Thien Hoang, Cao, Muqing and Xie, Lihua (2020). Persistently excited adaptive relative localization and time-varying formation of robot swarms. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 36 (2), 553-560. doi: 10.1109/tro.2019.2954677
Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Qiu, Zhirong, Nguyen, Thien Hoang, Cao, Muqing and Xie, Lihua (2019). Distance-based cooperative relative localization for leader-following control of MAVs. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 4 (4), 3641-3648. doi: 10.1109/lra.2019.2926671
Conference Papers
Nguyen, Tien-Dat, Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Nguyen, Vinh-Hao (2025). Coordinate-consistent localization via continuous-time calibration and fusion of UWB and SLAM observations. International Symposium on Electrical and Electronics Engineering, ISEE 2025, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, 23-24 October 2025. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/isee68370.2025.11223429
Thien-Minh Nguyen,, Yang, Yizhuo, Tien-Dat Nguyen,, Yuan, Shenghai and Xie, Lihua (2025). ULOC: learning to localize in complex large-scale environments with ultra-wideband ranges. 2025 International Conference on Robotics and Automation-ICRA-Annual, Atlanta, GA, United States, 19-23 May 2025. New York, NY, United States: IEEE. doi: 10.1109/icra55743.2025.11128859
Li, Jianping, Leng, Qiutong, Liu, Jinxin, Xu, Xinhang, Jin, Tongxin, Cao, Muqing, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Yuan, Shenghai, Cao, Kun and Xie, Lihua (2025). HelmetPoser: a helmet-mounted IMU dataset for data-driven estimation of human head motion in diverse conditions. 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Atlanta, GA, United States, 19-23 May 2025. Washington, DC, United States: IEEE Computer Society. doi: 10.1109/icra55743.2025.11128564
Yuan, Shenghai, Lou, Boyang, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Yin, Pengyu, Cao, Muqing, Xu, Xinghang, Li, Jianping, Xu, Jie, Chen, Siyu and Xie, Lihua (2025). Large-scale UWB anchor calibration and one-shot localization using gaussian process. 2025 International Conference on Robotics and Automation-ICRA-Annual, Atlanta, GA, United States, 19-23 May 2025. Piscataway, NJ, United States: IEEE. doi: 10.1109/icra55743.2025.11127688
Liu, Fen, Yuan, Shenghai, Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Su, Rong (2025). Autonomous 3D Moving target encirclement and interception with range measurement. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2025), Hangzhou, China, 19-25 October 2025. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/iros60139.2025.11246819
Ali, Waqas, Jensfelt, Patric and Nguyen, Thien-Minh (2024). HD-maps as prior information for globally consistent mapping in gps-denied environments. 27th Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference, Edmonton, Canada, 24-27 September 2024. Piscataway, NJ, United States: IEEE. doi: 10.1109/itsc58415.2024.10920221
Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Yuan, Shenghai, Nguyen, Thien Hoang, Yin, Pengyu, Cao, Haozhi, Xie, Lihua, Wozniak, Maciej, Jensfelt, Patric, Thie, Marko, Ziegenbein, Justin and Blunder, Noel (2024). MCD: diverse large-scale multi-campus dataset for robot perception. IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), Seattle, WA, United States, 16-22 June 2024. Washington, DC, United States: IEEE Computer Society. doi: 10.1109/cvpr52733.2024.02105
Yu, Wenlu, Xu, Jie, Zhao, Chengwei, Zhao, Lijun, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Yuan, Shenghai, Bai, Mingming and Xie, Lihua (2024). I2EKF-LO: a dual-iteration Extended Kalman Filter Based LiDAR odometry. 2024 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 14-18 October 2024. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/iros58592.2024.10801455
Li, Jianping, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Yuan, Shenghai and Xie, Lihua (2024). PSS-BA: LiDAR bundle adjustment with progressive spatial smoothing. 2024 International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 4-18 October 2024. Piscataway, NJ, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. doi: 10.1109/iros58592.2024.10802614
Yin, Pengyu, Cao, Haozhi, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Yuan, Shenghai, Zhang, Shuyang, Liu, Kangcheng and Xie, Lihua (2024). Outram: one-shot global localization via triangulated scene graph and global outlier pruning. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Yokohama, Japan, 13-17 May 2024. Washington, DC, United States: IEEE Computer Society. doi: 10.1109/icra57147.2024.10610206
Xu, Xinhang, Cao, Muqing, Yuan, Shenghai, Nguyen, Thien Hoang, Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Xie, Lihua (2024). A cost-effective cooperative exploration and inspection strategy for heterogeneous aerial system. IEEE 18th International Conference on Control and Automation (ICCA), Reykjavik, Iceland, 18-21 June 2024. Piscataway, NJ, United States: IEEE. doi: 10.1109/icca62789.2024.10591842
Yuan, Shenghai, Yang, Yizhuo, Nguyen, Thien Hoang, Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Yang, Jianfei, Liu, Fen, Li, Jianping, Wang, Han and Xie, Lihua (2024). MMAUD: A Comprehensive Multi-Modal Anti-UAV Dataset for Modern Miniature Drone Threats. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Yokohama, Japan, 13-17 May 2024. Washington, DC, United States: IEEE Computer Society. doi: 10.1109/icra57147.2024.10610957
Nguyen, Thien-Minh, Cao, Muqing, Yuan, Shenghai, Lyu, Yang, Nguyen, Thien Hoang and Xie, Lihua (2021). LIRO: tightly coupled lidar-inertia-ranging odometry. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Xi'an, China, 30 May - 5 June 2021. Washington, DC, United States: IEEE Computer Society. doi: 10.1109/icra48506.2021.9560954
Nguyen, Thien Hoang, Nguyen, Thien-Minh and Xie, Lihua (2020). Tightly-coupled single-anchor ultra-wideband-aided monocular visual odometry system. 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Paris, France, 31 May-15 June 2020. Washington, DC, United States: IEEE Computer Society. doi: 10.1109/icra40945.2020.9196794
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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.