Hooked on a New Technology: The Automation Pioneers in Post-War Norway

This paper presents the initial activities in servo engineering in Norway originating in the early 1950s based on contacts at the Massachusets Institute of Technology. The activities were initiated by a small group of servo enthusiasts who, through the Feedback Control Committee in the research council, managed to coordinate national activities and establish strong research groups in Trondheim, Bergen and Oslo. After the initial phase of establishing the research groups, there was a continuous strong focus on connections with industry and industrial applications. In the mid-1960s the committee was strengthened and became the Automation and Data Processing Committee. The initial group of automation pioneers have left a lasting impact on the academic and industrial fields of servo engineering and automation in Norway.