Date: September 2, 2026
Speaker: Manoj Karkee, Cornell CALS
Title: AI and Robotics in Specialty Crops
Host: Preston Culbertson & Kuan Fang
Abstract: AI and Robotics have been and will continue to play a key role in reducing farming inputs such as labor, water and fertilizer, and increasing productivity and produce quality. In recent years, the agricultural industry has seen advancements in and adoption of multi-modal, and modular sensing, automation and robotics technologies (including mobile device-based Applications and UAVs), and robust AI tools based on deep learning models (including LLMs/VLMs). Governments around the world have also been emphasizing the advancement of AI-empowered smart and automated technologies for the benefit of agricultural industries around the world with a wide range of farming scales and environments. In this presentation, the author will introduce the evolution of agricultural technologies and then discuss the importance of AI-enabled precision and automated/robotic systems for the future of farming (Smart Farming, Ag 4.0). He will continue with summarizing the past efforts and current status of agricultural automation and robotics in agriculture, with special emphasis on specialty crops. The presentation will conclude with an introduction of the novel robotic systems being developed in his program, and a discussion on major challenges and opportunities in AI and robotics for agriculture.
Keywords: AI in Agriculture, Robotics, Smart Farming, Precision Agriculture, Orchards
Bio: Dr. Manoj Karkee is the Norman R. and Sharon R. Scott Professor at the Biological and Environmental Engineering Department at Cornell University. Prior to joining Cornell, he was the director and professor at the Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems at Washington State University. He received his PhD in Agricultural Engineering and Human Computer Interaction from Iowa State University. Dr. Karkee leads a strong research program in the area of sensing, machine vision and #AgRobotics, and has published widely in such journals as ‘Information Fusion’, ‘Computers and Electronics in Agriculture’, ‘Journal of Field Robotics’, and ‘Journal of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE)’. He has also been an invited speaker at numerous national and international conferences and universities. Dr. Karkee is currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief for ‘Computers and Electronics in Agriculture’, and associate editor of ‘Journal of the ASABE’ and has served as a guest editor for ‘Journal of Field Robotics’. He has also served as the elected chair of CIGR (International Commission of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering) Section III - Plant Production, and IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Technical Committee 8.1 - Control in Agriculture. Dr. Karkee was awarded ‘2020 Railbird Engineering Concept of the Year’ by ASABE, and was recognized as ‘2019 Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence and IoT’ by Connected World magazine.