Giacomo Marani, Ph.D.
Program Manager and Research Engineer
WVRTC, Suite 152
Giacomo Marani received the "Laurea" degree (M.S.) in electronic engineering and a Ph.D. in robotics and automation from the University of Pisa, Italy, in 1997 and 2000 respectively. Until 2010 he has been with the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he served as acting principal investigator and project coordinator of the SAUVIM project — development of a Semi-Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Intervention Missions.
He now serves as program manager and research scientist at the West Virginia Robotic Technology Center, affiliated with the Satellite Servicing Projects Division of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, with focus on robotic systems designed for NASA missions on satellite servicing.
He served as chair of the IEEE Marine Robotics Technical Committee until 2017. His primary interests are focused on the development of real-time algorithms for autonomous robotic intervention, including simulation of mechanical systems, sensor fusion, environment interaction with computer vision and control systems.
Andres F. Velasquez, Ph.D.
Computer Vision Scientist
WVRTC, Suite 152
Andres F. Velasquez is the Computer Vision Scientist at the WVRTC. He is responsible for the development of computer vision-based algorithms intended for pose estimation and tracking of cooperative and non-cooperative targets. He is also responsible for the design and development of experimental tests and virtual simulations used for algorithm evaluation and sensor calibration.
Velasquez received his Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from WVU. His experience and interests include modeling and simulation of system dynamics, pose estimation and sensor fusion.