Tom Panzarella Email & Phone Number

Pittsburgh, Pa, Us

Pittsburgh, Pa, Us

As a member of the executive leadership team, I lead Seegrid's robotics and core technology development. My teams ship our production AMR software and I am responsible for allocating our strategic investments in R&D. We are on a mission to build the world's most capable autonomous fork trucks.

Pittsburgh, Pa, Us

I lead the Autonomy Software teams. This is an expanded scope of my previous position to include Perception, Planning and Execution, Motion Control, and the middleware / infrastructure software of the Autonomy Platform.

Pittsburgh, Pa, Us

Seegrid is a world-leading provider of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) for material handling. Our fleet includes autonomous tow tractors, pallet jacks, and fork trucks.I lead the Perception Team. We are responsible for localization and mapping, obstacle detection, and various object recognition/localization feedback systems. Our sensor stack includes 2D and 3D LiDAR, 3D ToF cameras, monocular and stereo cameras.Some accomplishments to date include:- Served as a senior technical leader and architect for Seegrid's Palion Lift Truck- Introduced and commercialized a new software stack built on ROS 2 to handle Perception workloads- Introduced LiDAR odometry and SLAM allowing Seegrid AMRs to navigate off of pre-trained paths and handle agile pallet manipulation tasks- Introduced software patterns and architecture for seamlessly integrating closed-loop, visual feedback systems into Seegrid's larger control stack- Named inventor on several new patents associated with the work listed above- In addition to leading Perception, I am leading a broader effort focused on the modernization and technical debt paydown of Seegrid's autonomy softwareBeyond my technical responsibilities:- Recruit, hire, and mentor Perception and Autonomy Software teams- Focus on a strong work-hard/play-hard culture fostering intellectual curiosity and psychological safety- Serve as trusted advisor to our senior executive team and board of directors- Serve as subject matter expert on core technology to executive, product, ops, marketing, and other non-engineering teams- Help to shape corporate-wide engineering policies and practices- Participate in technical diligence, corporate development, and capital raising- Member of the IP and Patent Review Committee- Member of the Open Source Software Committee- Represent Seegrid at industry events to include conference speaking engagementsKey Tech: C++, 3D LiDAR, Stereo Vision, ROS 2, Python, HD Maps, SLAM

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Us

Box Robotics is rebuilding the AGV perception stack with human-like spatial awareness for higher-speed driving, uncompromising safety, and lifelong autonomy.Box Robotics was acquired by Seegrid in September 2020.Key Tech: Long-range 3D LiDAR, HD Maps, Deep Learning, ROS 2, C++, Python, CUDA, SLAM

Essen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, De

Technical leadership for a new business unit within ifm focused on the industrial mobile robotics market. The work I led at Love Park Robotics (LPR), through its acquisition by ifm electronic, gmbh, serves as the technology seed to this new business entity within ifm. I also served as a board member of ifm’s Technical Steering Committee helping to shape the global strategy within the Robotics market. https://www.ifm.com/us/en/us/robotics/ifm-roboticsScaled the LPR Pallet Detection System (PDS) world-wide including establishing a global team of computer vision specialists to integrate PDS with OEMs around the world. PDS has set the industry benchmark for pallet manipulation tasks on autonomous industrial vehicles. PDS provides closed-loop visual feedback to localize both pallets (the "pick-side" operation) and industrial racking systems (the "drop-side" operation). https://www.ifm.com/us/en/us/robotics/software-solutions/pds/pdsEstablished ifm3d (https://github.com/ifm/ifm3d) as the industrial embedded SDK for all ifm 3D camera systems. ifm3d runs in the real-time control loop of thousands of commercial robots around the world handling production tasks. ifm3d remains actively supported internally by ifm and will be the customer-facing SDK for its future perception platform that is currently in development. ifm3d is bundled as part of the Robot Operating System (ROS) or available standalone through the Canonical Snapcraft Store: https://snapcraft.io/ifm3d.Conceptualized and worked with a team of HW, SW, and systems engineers on a new architecture for ifm's next generation perception platform (O3R) -- including establishing contacts inside of critical development partner companies.I also led several R&D projects within ifm for competitive analysis and technical de-risking of new products. I worked closely with lead customers and University research partners on such efforts. KeyTech: C++, Python, MATLAB, ROS, ToF, LIDAR, Real-time 3D computer vision

- Founder of a mobile robotics company specializing in embedded real-time 3D computer vision and full-stack navigation (perception, planning, and control) for industrial applications.- Bootstrapped the company with my own money and a small capital raise from angel investors. Love Park Robotics was acquired by ifm electronic, gmbh in January 2018.- Primary investigator (PI) on a National Science Foundation (NSF) SBIR Phase I, II, and IIB to develop CoPilot. CoPilot is a full-stack autonomous navigation system for ground vehicles built on top of the Robot Operating System (ROS).- Built various object recognition software systems for automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and other industrial robots. These software systems operate on data from 3D cameras in real-time as part of a larger systems-level control loop. Exemplary applications include: a pallet detection and localization system, an industrial rack detection and localization system, a perception system for industrial arm depalletization, infrastructure-free 3D localization for AGVs, obstacle detection systems, and other specialized perception systems.- Developed open-source s/w for the IFM O3D line of 3D cameras bridging the sensors to the open-source frameworks PCL, OpenCV, and ROS. This code is currently in use at companies such as: Dematic, JBT, Intelligrated, Brain Corp, Bossanova, Carnegie Robotics, Google, Fetch Robotics, and others. This software has evolved to become the standard industrial SDK for all of IFM's 3D cameras to include the on-camera runtime SDK for hosting embedded OEM algorithms.- https://www.youtube.com/user/loveparkroboticsKey Tech: C++, Python, MATLAB, Multithreaded distributed network programming, Linux, ROS, PCL, OpenCV, CUDA, CMake, SocketCAN, ASIO, depth sensors (ToF, structured light), LIDAR (Velodyne)

- Co-inventor, team lead, and software engineer for the Automated Transport and Retrieval System (ATRS) - a commercial, outdoor, mobile robotics application that enables a wheelchair-bound individual to stow and retrieve their wheelchair into and out of their automobile without the assistance of a caregiver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fPgIPgzIfc- Designed and developed a proprietary, commercial-grade, autonomous navigation stack (perception, planning, and control) for ATRS that was classified as a Class II medical device and awarded two 510(k) FDA approvals.- Worked closely with robotics quants to develop robust estimation and control algorithms in simulation (MATLAB and Python) then integrate them into the core ATRS navigation stack (C++ on ARM).- Device driver development (kernel and user-space) for various sensors and other hardware.- Development of embedded firmware (Microchip and Atmel) for various mechatronic devices.- Management of in-house engineering team and a team of PhD research scientists from various universities.- Served as PI or Co-PI on numerous state and federal grants (e.g., SBIR) from agencies such as NSF.- Saw the company go from a research project, to a startup running out of my guest room, to a "legitimate company", and through to acquisition by a private equity firm as part of a larger health care roll-up strategy. Key Tech: C, C++, Python, MATLAB, LIDAR (SICK, Hokuyo), Multithreaded distributed network programming, Linux

King Of Prussia, Pa, Us

- Lead software engineer for the Data Pump. The Data Pump integrates over 100 million records from several hundred data sources, each with their own unique data model into consolidated master databases. The Data Pump is a distributed system that runs over a horizontally scalable Linux cluster.- Data modeling, algorithm design, and software development for the persistence, clustering, matching, normalization, and entity extraction routines which constitute the core of the Data Pump.- Part of a five person team that developed a custom port of the Data Pump for a high-profile integration project for Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK).- Part of a two person team that developed DPScript, an application specific scripting language for the Data Pump. DPScript was modeled after the Java build tool, Ant. It allowed for declaring a data transformation pipeline (often quite complex) without the need to write custom code. This helped scale the HMS business as departments outside of engineering were able to deliver client jobs autonomously.- Automated the build, install, and deployment processes for the Data Pump. This included maintaining local package servers for all of the third-party libraries and tools the system relied upon so that consistent and validated versions were used across all installations of the software. Prior to this effort, there were only one or two engineers on the staff who could successfully build and install a Data Pump instance.- HMS was acquired by Lexis NexisKey Technologies: Java, Perl, C++, MySQL, Oracle, Large-scale data transformation pipelines, Distributed systems, Linux

- Responsible for all aspects of the technical implementation of FCNY's E-Community Connect program.- Developed custom web applications in support of the E-Community Connect effort to improve access to health care and education for "at risk" mothers living in disenfranchised communities.- Developed multimedia-based software interfaces and content delivery mechanisms for educational applications intended for use by a limited literacy, multi-lingual audience.- Developed a portable internationalization engine with support for localization of rich media formats as well as text.- Conducted various programming and Linux systems classes for FCNY's non-profit technology school.Key Technologies: PHP, Perl, C++, Linux, Apache, MySQL

New York, Ny, Us

- Developed integration software for the Alladin Enterprise Investment System and third-party accounting packages.- Developed integration software to enable Alladin to generate business intelligence reports seamlessly from models built using Cognos Impromptu.- Significantly cleaned up a legacy code base that lacked any clear architecture.Key Tech: C++, Perl, Distributed systems, Linux, Solaris, Sybase, Reverse engineering

Us

- Senior developer in the Middleware Integration department focused on the development of a proprietary middleware application server in support of Thomson Scientific's flagship product, the Web of Knowledge.- Part of a team that designed a micro-services architecture and language-neutral wire protocol for message passing between system components: authentication, authorization, session persistence, etc.- Technical lead (algorithm and software development) for Thomson Scientific enterprise reporting and usage analytics package.- Worked closely with the operations team to ensure consistent builds of the middleware infrastructure and successful deployments of new versions of the software to all data centers.- "Go to" engineer for troubleshooting and fixing production performance issues -- systems, middleware, applications, etc.- Inherited a large and "unknown-to-me" code base for a critical middleware component due to the untimely and tragic death of a team member. I was able to ramp up on the code quickly and keep the release schedule on track.- Thomson Scientific merged with Reuters and now operates as Thomson Reuters.Key Tech: C++, Perl, MySQL, Apache, Linux, AIX, Solaris, DB2, Analytics, Distributed systems, Web services

- Responsible for IT functions at a heavy industrial manufacturing firm.- Linux, HP/UX, SCO UNIX, NT systems administration.- SyteLine/Progress ERP database administration.- Designed and developed custom software systems to support internal business processes.- Designed and developed custom software systems to enable shop-floor automation and robotic welding systems.- Help desk support to 50+ PC users.- Managed enterprise IT budget.Key Tech: C, Perl, Linux, UNIX, NT, Progress 4GL, SQL

Master'S Degree, Mathematics

Master'S Degree, Computer Science

Master'S Degree, Internet Engineering

Bachelor'S Degree

High School