Company Profile
SAUVIM (Semi-Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Intervention Missions) began in 1997 at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, under Dr. Junku Yuh, a former professor in the department of Mechanical Engineering, and supported by the Office of Naval Research.
In 2001, the project, became divided among three entities to promote collaboration via technology transfer between academia (the Autonomous Systems Laboratory, University of Hawaii at Manoa), local industry (Marine Autonomous Systems Engineering - MASE, a Hawaii small business), and a government research entity (Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport - NUWC).
Dr. Yuh is currently on leave and, although still actively involved in several aspects of the SAUVIM project, he has given authority to Dr. Giacomo Marani.
Giacomo Marani serves as SAUVIM acting PI. He directs the academic research unit (Autonomous Systems Laboratory, at the University of Hawaii at Manoa) and, being responsible of the integration of the SAUVIM sub-systems (Navigation, Manipulation, Sensors, User Interface, etc.), he manages the overall technical coordination between the project entities. Dr. Marani\'s scientific researches focus on the development of new solutions for autonomous manipulation with robotic devices, applied to underwater vehicles.
Dr. Song K. Choi is the MASE PI. MASE works on the engineering, fabrication, testing, and maintenance of the vehicle through logistics planning, technology innovation and fabrication, and novel software/hardware integration techniques.
Finally, NUWC, with Dr. Paul Temple as PI, assists with testing logistics and documentation.
Up to today the SAUVIM project has been supported by the ONR grants N00014-97-1-0961, N00014-00-1-0629, N00014-02-1-0840, N00014-03-1-0969, N00014-04-1-0751, N00014-04-1-0188.
