Robert Ambrose

Robert Ambrose received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in Mechanical Engineering. He received his M.S. and B. S. degrees from Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Ambrose currently serves as the Division Chief of the Software, Robotics and Simulation Division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas, USA. The SR&S Division is responsible for flight spacecraft software, space robotics and system simulations for human spaceflight missions. Within the Division are five Branches responsible for managing on-orbit robotic systems for the International Space Station, development of software for the Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle and future human spaceflight systems, simulations for engineering development and training, hardware and software GFE, hardware in the loop facilities for anomaly resolution and crew training, and the technology Branch for development of new robotic systems. Dr. Ambrose also serves as the Principal Technologist for NASA’s Space Technologies Mission Directorate, overseeing research and formulating new starts in the domains of robotics and autonomous systems. He co-chairs the NASA Robotics, Tele-Robotics and Autonomous Systems roadmap team, and is the robotics lead for the agency’s human spaceflight architecture study teams. Working with the US Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), Dr. Ambrose is the Technical Point of Contact for NASA’s collaboration in the National Robotics Initiative (NRI). He is married to Dr. Catherine G. Ambrose and lives in Houston, Texas.