Olav Egeland was born in Trondheim, Norway, in 1959. He received the Siv. Ing. degree in 1984 and the Dr. Ing. degree in 1987 in electric engineering from the Norwegian Institute of Technology, Trondheim, Norway.He became an Assistant Professor in 1987 and Professor of Robotics in 1989 at the Division of Engineering Cybernetics, the Norwegian Institute of Technology. In the academic year 1988/89 he was a Visiting Scientist at the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR/ in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. His research interests include control of manipulators, surface vessels, flexible structures, and nonholonomic vehicles.