Professional Preparation

Appointments

Positions and Employment

2009 – Date         Professor, Director, Center for Precision & Automated Agricultural Systems, Washington State University (WSU)

1997 – 2009         Assistant/Associate/Full Professor, Agricultural Engineering, University of Illinois at U-C

                      1994 – 1997         Sr. Research Engineer, Caterpillar, Inc., Peoria, IL

1992 – 1994         Postdoctoral Research Associate, Agricultural Engineering, University of Illinois at U-C

                      1982 – 1985 Instructor, Agricultural Engineering, Zhejiang Agricultural University (China)

Products

• Five most relevant to the current application
• Zhang, Q. and F. Pierce, 2013. Agricultural Automation: Fundamentals and Practices. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, (397 pp).
• Gongal, A., A. Silwal, S. Amatya, M. Karkee, Q. Zhang, and K. Lewis. 2016. Apple crop-load estimation with over-the-row machine vision system. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 120: 26-35.
• Osroosh, Y., R.T. Peters, C.S. Campbell and Q. Zhang, 2015. Automatic irrigation scheduling of apple trees using theoretical crop water stress index with an innovative dynamic threshold. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 118: 193-203.
• Noh, H. and Q. Zhang, 2012. Shadow effect on multi-spectral image for detection of nitrogen deficiency in corn. Computer and Electronics in Agriculture, 83: 52–57.
• Kise, M. and Q. Zhang, 2008. Creating a panoramic field image using multi-spectral stereovision system. Computer and Electronics in Agriculture, 60: 67-75.
• Additional recent products of importance to the field
• Zhang, Q. 2015. Precision Agriculture Technology for Crop Farming. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, (360 pp).
• Zhang, J., Q. Zhang, and M.D. Whiting, 2016. Canopy light interception conversion in upright fruiting offshoot (UFO) sweet cherry orchard. Transactions of the ASABE, 59(4): 727-736.
• Osroosh, Y., R.T. Peters, C.S. Campbell, and Q. Zhang. 2016. Comparison of irrigation automation algorithms for drip-irrigated apple trees. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 128: 87-99.
• Amatya, S., M. Karkee, A. Gongal, Q. Zhang, and M.D. Whiting, 2016. Detection of cherry tree branches in planner architecture for automated sweet-cherry harvesting. Biosystems Engineering, 146: 3-15.
• Li, L., T. Peters, Q. Zhang, J. Zhang, and D. Huang, 2014. Modeling apple surface temperature dynamics based on weather data. Sensors, 14:20217-20234.

Synergistic Activities

• International Program Committee Chair, 5th IFAC Conference on Sensing, Control and Automation for Agriculture, Seattle, USA (2016).
• Editor-in-Chief, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, Elsevier (since 2009)
• Invited Speech: Technical Obstacles and Possible Solutions for Agricultural Robotics, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Hamburg, Germany (2015).
• Invited Speech: Agricultural Robotics, Status, Challenges and Opportunities, IEEE RAS Summer School on Agricultural Robotics (SSAR), Sydney, Australia (2015).
• Convener, Symposium on Mechanization, Precision Horticulture & Robotics, 29^th International Horticulture Congress, Brisbane, Australia (2014).