Jonathan Barlow

Ames Research Center, Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies (United States)

Papers

Total Citations

133

H-Index

About

Jonathan Barlow is a leading figure in the development of free-flying robotics for space exploration, with his work centered on autonomous systems designed to operate inside crewed spacecraft. His primary contribution is the creation and deployment of the Astrobee robot system aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Barlow’s foundational 2015 paper, “Astrobee: Developing a Free-flying Robot for the International Space Station,” has earned 88 citations and established the rationale for using free-flyers to perform routine, repetitive, and hazardous tasks, thereby freeing up valuable astronaut time. He further advanced this platform with his 2016 work, “Astrobee: A New Platform for Free-Flying Robotics on the International Space Station” (36 citations), which detailed the robot’s flexible design for hosting diverse research payloads. Most recently, Barlow released the first annotated benchmark datasets for zero-g visual-inertial navigation, providing the research community with critical tools for advancing space intra-vehicular robotics. His work is pivotal in transforming the ISS into a testbed for autonomous systems that will be essential for future deep-space missions, where human oversight will be limited.