Steve Macenski
CEO, Chief Navigator
San Francisco, California, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolSteve Macenski is a robotics CEO and principal architect with a decade of hands-on experience building open-source navigation, perception, and SLAM systems for real-world mobile robots. As founder of Open Navigation LLC and former senior technical lead at Samsung Research America, he led and maintained core ROS and ROS2 projects—Nav2, SLAM Toolbox, Robot Localization—and is widely recognized in the community for production-grade, high-speed navigation in human-filled, unstructured spaces. He blends systems architecture with low-level hardware work, implementing novel planners, voxel-based environment representations (OpenVDB-backed Spatio-Temporal Voxel Grid), and motion-smoothing algorithms for robust autonomy. A prolific contributor and technical writer, he couples rigorous engineering with clear documentation and has influenced ROS governance and ecosystem roadmaps. Based in San Francisco, he serves on advisory boards and journals, showing a rare mix of research publishing, product leadership, and gritty hands-on robotics engineering.
10 years of coding experience
9 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Aerospace Engineering, Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Aerospace Engineering at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Github Skills (40)
algorithm10
code-optimization10
algorithms10
c-language10
robotics10
learn-ruby-on-rails10
software-design10
image-processing10
technical-writing10
user-manual10
navigationbar10
cmake10
basics10
navigation-drawer10
openvdb10
Programming languages (15)
Github contributions (5)
SteveMacenski/slam_toolbox
May 2018 - Dec 2022
Slam Toolbox for lifelong mapping and localization in potentially massive maps with ROS
Role in this project:
Backend Developer
Backend DeveloperContributions:48 releases, 302 reviews, 518 commits in 4 years 8 months
Contributions summary:Steve's commits primarily focused on modifications to the `slam_karto` codebase, a SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) toolbox for lifelong mapping and localization in ROS (Robot Operating System). Contributions centered around refactoring the code, including the deletion of pointers and reorganizing code, as well as updating and adding parameters. These changes involved core C++ files, indicating a focus on backend functionality and possibly optimization or bug fixes within the SLAM algorithms.
toolboxmappingroslocalization
ros-navigation/navigation2
Oct 2018 - Jan 2023
ROS 2 Navigation Framework and System
Role in this project:Backend Engineer
Backend EngineerContributions:84 releases, 4227 reviews, 790 commits in 4 years 4 months
Contributions summary:Steve's commits focus on substantial code modifications within the ROS 2 navigation framework, particularly within the context of a local planner implementation. These changes included restructuring code and adding new features, such as support for different path angle modes within the MPPI controller, enhancements to the heuristic, and the introduction of a new Savitzky-Golay smoother for improved path quality. Their work involved API and internal structure modifications with a focus on motion planning and path smoothing algorithms, enhancing both the function and design of the Navigation2 system.
roboticsros2autonomous-robotsrosnavigation
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