Talk Title

Robotics and AI for Precision Agriculture: Challenges, Opportunities and Innovations

Biography

Dr Ketao Zhang is a Reader in Robotics at Queen Mary University of London, where he directs the Robotic Systems Research Group within the Centre for Advanced Robotics (ARQ). He is also the Industrial Engagement Lead for the Centre for Intelligent Transport. His research focuses on embodied and intelligent robotics, integrating robot body design, sensing, control and learning to enable robust interaction with complex environments. His work spans reconfigurable mechanisms, aerial robotics, and soft robotics, underpinned by expertise in robot kinematics, dynamics and the co-design of robotic bodies and control. Dr Zhang has published more than 100 articles in leading journals and conferences, including Nature and IEEE and ASME Transactions. He led the development of an aerial additive manufacturing approach using teams of autonomous drones, opening new possibilities for building and repairing structures in remote, high or difficult-to-access locations. This research was published in Nature and featured on its cover in September 2022. He received the Institution of Civil Engineers’ Howard Medal for his research on drone-based additive manufacturing. Dr Zhang is an Associate Editor of IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Mechanism and Machine Theory, and the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design.