Dr. Carignan received his BS, MS, and ScD degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1987, he joined the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to develop and test control systems for a robotic demonstration test flight. He then worked at the University of Maryland Space Systems Laboratory to develop control systems for neutral buoyancy robotic vehicles used to simulate satellite servicing tasks. In 2002, he joined the Georgetown University Medical Center to develop robotic devices for rehabilitation. He returned to the University of Maryland in 2009, where he also serves as an adjunct member of the graduate faculty. He has authored over 60 publications in robotics and has taught over 10 courses on robotics and control. He was co-recipient of the AIAA Modeling & Simulation Technologies Conference Best Paper Award in 1999 for his work on robotic vehicle simulation. Dr. Carignan has also served on NSF review committees for the Biomedical Engineering and Research to Aid Disabilities Program. He completed a mobility assignment with the U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center in 2010 overseeing projects in the Medical Robotics and Prosthetics & Advanced Human Performance portfolios. He is currently a robotics consulting engineer at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. He received NASA Exceptional Achievement for Engineering Team Awards on the Argon and OSAM-1 projects. Dr. Carignan is a Senior Member of IEEE.

Dr. Giacomo Marani is Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical, Materials & Aerospace Engineering, West Virginia University. He also serves as Director and Research Scientist at the West Virginia Robotic Technology Center, with a focus on robotic systems designed for NASA missions in satellite servicing. He completed his Ph.D. in Robotics and Automation and earned his "Laurea" (M.S.) degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Pisa, Italy. He has been awarded recognition for his contributions to underwater and space robotics, and until 2010, he served as Acting Principal Investigator of the SAUVIM project at the University of Hawaii at Manoa—a program dedicated to developing a Semi-Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Intervention Missions. Dr. Marani has published numerous papers in various journals and served as Chair of the IEEE Marine Robotics Technical Committee until 2017. His teaching disciplines include robotics, control systems, and computer vision, and his research interests span real-time algorithms for autonomous robotic intervention, simulation of mechanical systems, sensor fusion, environment interaction, compliance control, and advanced robotic kinematics, including task priority assignment and singularity avoidance.