Lirong Xiang

Assistant Professor

Automation and Robotics Laboratory (AR Lab)

Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University

204 Riley-Robb Hall, Ithaca, NY. 14853

Email: lxiang@cornell.edu



Find Out More

About Me

Lirong Xiang

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University and was an Assistant Professor at NC State University from 2022 to 2025. I received my Ph.D. degree in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering from Iowa State University in 2022 and my B.S. degree in Biosystems Engineering from Zhejiang University in 2017. My research mainly focuses on agricultural robotics, 2D & 3D computer vision, and machine learning. During my Ph.D. program, I worked on developing robotic and automated systems for both indoor and in-field plant phenotyping applications.

I aim to develop smart cyber-physical systems that integrate cutting-edge robotics, machine vision, and machine learning technologies to automate labor-intensive tasks in agricultural systems. Example research projects include:

  • AI and robotic sensing for controlled environment agriculture.
  • Bio-inspired robotic systems for complex agricultural environments.
  • Indoor and outdoor high-throughput phenotyping.
  • Digital twins and simulation platforms for agricultural automation.

Personnel


Weilong He
Ph.D. Student
wh542@cornell.edu

Weilong is pursuing a PhD degree in Biological and Environmental Engineering at Cornell. He obtained his B.Eng. in Electronic Information Engineering from Wuhan University of Technology (China) in 2022. Then he started working as a graduate research assistant in the Robotics and Automation Lab. His research interests include agricultural robotics, computer vision, and deep learning applied to the field of agriculture.
Xingjian Li
Ph.D. Student
xl2295@cornell.edu

Xingjian is a PhD student at Cornell University. His interests include image processing and controls for robotics. His lab projects include: Automatic Blueberry Counting and Weight Estimation using Images on Mobile Devices, Industrial Robotic Arm Simulation in Unreal Engine 5 used for Simulating Plant 3D Mesh Reconstruction Process.
Zhenghua Zhang
Ph.D. Student
zz973@cornell.edu

Zhenghua Zhang is a PhD student in the AR lab at Cornell. He received his B.E. degree from Xi'an Jiaotong University. Zhenghua has won the first prize in the National Student Mechanical Innovation Competition and has received several university scholarships. His main research interests are robot structure design, robot simulation experiment and control system design.
Pengyao Xie
PostDoc
px62@cornell.edu

Pengyao earned his Ph.D. in Agricultural Electrification and Automation from Zhejiang University in 2025, where his doctoral research focused on multimodal data fusion, proximal 3D spectral point cloud reconstruction of plants, and high-throughput plant phenotyping. His work intersects robotics control, computer vision, deep learning and smart agriculture.
Yang Li
Master Student
yl4473@cornell.edu

Yang is pursuing a master degree at Cornell University. She graduated from the University of California, Davis with a bachelor's degree, majoring in Agriculture and Environmental Technology (Digital Agriculture Direction). Her main interests include indoor agriculture, automation and precision agriculture, as well as machine vision. Currently, she is working as a research assistant in the lab, participating in research related to plant phenotyping analysis and 3D point cloud data processing.
Anaya Qian
Undergraduate Student
aq62@cornell.edu

Anaya is an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering. She has interests in robotics and machine learning, and is currently working under Dr. Xiang as an undergraduate research assistant to help with the tomato plant disease phenotyping.
Kenneth Kniffin
Undergraduate Student
kck78@cornell.edu

Kenneth is an undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering at Cornell. His interests include agricultural robotics, and he is working on the development of a variety of robot designs, including legged robots.
Thomas Steward
Undergraduate Student
tfs52@cornell.edu

Thomas is an undergraduate student studying Mathematics. His interests include mathematical modeling and the use of game engine software to represent real-world systems. His current project involves using a game engine to model tomato plant phenotypes as a means of generating synthetic training data for AI applications in robotics.
Jackson Purdy
Undergraduate Student
jjp338@cornell.edu

Jackson is an undergraduate student in Biological Engineering at Cornell. He has interests in precision agriculture and machine learning. His current project consists of building a machine learning model on tomato plant phenotypes using a deep network of training set data of the plant at different stages in its development.
Yongjin Lee
Undergraduate Student
yl2889@cornell.edu

Yongjin is an undergraduate student in Computer Science at Cornell. His interests include machine learning, computer vision, and currently is working on tomato plant segmentation through VLMs and foundation models.
Kalista Kolim
Undergraduate Student
kk2296@cornell.edu

Kalista is an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Environmental Engineering. She has interests in environmental and agricultural robotics and 3D design, and is currently working under Dr. Xiang as an undergraduate research assistant developing a hexapod robot leg with integrated tools for agricultural tasks.



Lab Alumni

Postdoctoral Researchers

  • Prem Raj (2024–2025): Dr. Raj earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Kanpur, where his doctoral research developed innovative robotic grasping and motion planning solutions for cluttered environments. His research intersects computer vision, deep learning, and robotic manipulation, driving advancements in intelligent and sustainable agricultural solutions. As of December 2025, he is a postdoctoral researcher at Texas A&M University.
  • Wesley Moss (2023-2024): Dr. Wesley Moss is a mechanical engineer and researcher from Australia and worked at NCSU as a Fulbright visiting researcher. He received a PhD in Agricultural Engineering from The University of Western Australia. In collaboration with the Precision Sustainable Agriculture network, Wesley led the development of robotic weeding platforms. As of May 2024, he is a Research Fellow at UWA.
Graduate Research Assistants
  • Evelynn Wilcox (2024-2026): Evelynn was a graduate student at NC State University pursuing a degree in Biological Engineering and co-advised by Drs. Jason Ward and Lirong Xiang. She has research interests in agricultural robotics, computer vision, and deep learning modeling. As of 2026, Evelynn is a PhD student at NC State.
  • Alex Brown (2024-2026): Alex was co-advised by Dr. Jason Ward and Dr. Xiang, where she worked on sweetpotato transplanting. As of 2026, Alex is a Ph.D. student at NC State.
  • Yuxi Chen (2024–2025): Yuxi was a master’s student in ECE and worked as an hourly-paid graduate research assistant in the lab. Her research focused on computer vision techniques, such as instance segmentation and object detection for analyzing sweetpotato stems. As of 2026, she is a Ph.D. student at NC State working with Dr. Frank Bai.
  • ShengDao Du (2024–2025): ShengDao’s research focuses on the intersection of agricultural robotics, point cloud algorithms, robot control algorithms, and image processing. As of 2026, he is a Ph.D. student at NC State working with Dr. Frank Bai.
  • Ratan Immidisetti (2022-2023): Ratan's research in the lab focused on performing 2D/3D computer vision tasks like semantic segmentation and object detection. As of May 2024, he is an Applied Scientist at Amazon.
Visiting Scholar
  • Fan Wu (2023): Fan is an undergraduate student from Zhejiang University. She led the development of AI algorithms for cotton seed damage detection. As of 2024, Fan is a master student at NC State.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
  • Alex Brown (2023-2024): Alex was an undergraduate student in agricultural engineering in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering (BAE), where she has worked with Dr. Xiang on the design of a legged robot. She also worked on her senior design project titled “The Design of a Novel Modular and Automated Agricultural Sensing and Control Platform for Anywhere Agriculture.”
  • Evelynn Wilcox (2024): Evelynn Wilcox was an undergraduate student in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, where she developed AI models for tomato disease phenotyping. As of 2025, she is a graduate student at NC State University.
  • Jean Cheng (2023-2025): Jean is an undergraduate student at UNC–Chapel Hill. Her research activities include cotton seed damage detection and cotton seedling phenotyping.
  • Hannah Wall (2023-2024): Hannah was an undergraudate student in BAE. She supported robotic weeding, sweetpotato transplanting projects, and summer camp (Summer 2023 and 2024). As of 2024, Hannah is a master student at NC State.
  • Kevin Lin (2023-2024): Kevin led the development of a user interface for tomato disease detection. As of summer 2024, Kevin is an undergraduate student in the Department of Computer Science at NC State.
  • Costas Pieri (2023): Costas supported robotic weeding and mechanical design. As of 2024, he is an undergraduate student in BAE.
  • Brendon Sadlowski (2023): Brendon worked on robotic weeding and mechanical design. As of 2024, he is an undergraduate student in BAE.
High School Students
  • Nancy Wang (Summer 2026): Nancy worked on tomato phenotyping. As of Summer 2026, she is a student at Ithaca High School.
  • Nicolas Simmonds (Summer 2026): Nicolas worked on developing a robotic platform for agricultural applications. As of Summer 2026, he is a student at Ithaca High School.
  • Alex Guo (Summer 2026): Alex worked on tactile sensor development for agricultural robotics. As of Summer 2026, he is a student at Ithaca High School.
  • Charlie Cao (Summer 2026): Charlie worked on the design of an aquaculture robot. As of Summer 2026, he is a student at Fulton Science Academy High School.
  • Sujit Uppuluri (2023-2024): Sujit worked on robotic structure design for agricultural robotics. As of December 2025, he is an undergraduate student at Carnegie Mellon University.
  • Siddharth Gundarapu (2024): Siddharth supported the mechanical design of a strawberry-sensing robot. As of 2024, he is a high school student at Green Level High School.
  • Tanvi Chordiya (2024): Tanvi worked on developing robotic systems for strawberry sensing and pruning. As of 2024, she is a high school student at Green Level High School.


Openings

I am currently looking for fully funded graduate students to join the Automation and Robotics Lab. If you are interested in our research in robotics, sensors, machine vision, or artificial intelligence, please email me with your CV.

Current Opportunities
  • Ph.D. Students: Fully funded Ph.D. positions are available for highly motivated students with backgrounds in agricultural engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, or related fields. Potential funding opportunities: NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
  • Postdoctoral Researchers: Positions are available for candidates with strong expertise in robotics, machine learning, computer vision, or AI-driven systems. Potential funding opportunities: Cornell Atkinson Postdoctoral Fellowship, USDA NIFA postdoc fellowship.
  • Undergraduate & High School Students: Students interested in robotics, sensors, machine vision, or artificial intelligence are welcome to join the lab and participate in hands-on research. Potential funding opportunities: Engineering Undergraduate Research Grants Program.
  • Visiting Scholars: Visiting researchers and students are welcome through formal exchange or fellowship programs.

For more information, please click here . You may also contact me directly at lxiang@cornell.edu.


Publications

Google Scholar

Publications

Plant Disease Diagnosis (2026)
PD-CLIP: A contrastive language-image pre-training framework for zero-shot fine-grained plant disease diagnosis
3D Plant Reconstruction (2024)
Photorealistic Arm Robot Simulation for 3D Plant Reconstruction and Automatic Annotation using Unreal Engine 5
Characterizing Leaf Angle (2024)
Swin-Roleaf: A new method for characterizing leaf azimuth angle in large-scale maize plants
Robotic Phenotyping (2024)
High‐Throughput Robotic Phenotyping for QuantifyingTomato Disease Severity Enabled by Synthetic Data andDomain‐Adaptive Semantic Segmentation
Hexapod Robot (2024)
Development of a bionic hexapod robot with adaptive gait and clearance for enhanced agricultural field scouting
Field Robotics for Leaf Angle (2023)
Field‐based robotic leaf angle detection and characterization of maize plants using stereo vision and deep convolutional neural networks
Robotic Assay for Drought (2020)
Robotic Assay for Drought (RoAD): An Automated Phenotyping System for Brassinosteroid and Drought Response

Research

Explore our research in agricultural sensing, legged robotics, simulation, robotic transplanting, and greenhouse monitoring and automation. Select a topic to view its projects, videos, and related publications.

Greenhouse monitoring and automation

Intelligent Greenhouse Monitoring and Automation

Intelligent monitoring and automation for greenhouse environments.

Explore this topic →

AI-enabled Plant Phenotyping

Robotic sensing, computer vision, yield mapping, and 3D plant characterization.

Explore this topic →

Legged Robots for Agricultural Applications

Spider-inspired platforms, robot design, locomotion, navigation, and control.

Explore this topic →

Digital Twins and Simulation

Virtual crops and agricultural environments for robot simulation, sensing, and control.

Explore this topic →

Robotic Manipulation and Automation

Robotic systems for automating crop transplanting, including sweetpotato.

Explore this topic →

Teaching

AI, machine vision, and robotics for precision agriculture, from the course poster BEE 6940

Graduate Special Topics in Biological and Environmental Engineering

This course explores the development and deployment of autonomous systems for precision and digital agriculture, with an emphasis on real-world applications in specialty crop production. Topics include perception-action integration, autonomous robot control and navigation, digital twins, remote sensing, and AI-driven decision-making. Through case studies and project-based learning, students will examine how emerging AI and robotic technologies can be translated into robust, field-ready solutions for next-generation smart agriculture.

Course details → Course poster →
Greenhouse sensing and control systems, from the course poster BEE 4940

Sensing, Control, and Dynamics in Biological Systems

This course introduces sensing, dynamic modeling, and feedback control through applications in biological engineering. Topics include sensor principles and calibration, data acquisition, mechanical and thermal system dynamics, differential equation models, transfer functions, block diagrams, and proportional–integral–derivative (PID) control. Hands-on laboratories connect lectures with practical measurement, modeling, and controller design using microcontrollers, sensors, and actuators. A team project integrates these skills to develop and evaluate a sensing and control system for a biological application, such as greenhouse monitoring or irrigation.

Course details → Course poster →
An engineering guest lecture with students in a classroom ENGRG 1050

Engineering Seminar

First-year engineering students meet in groups weekly with their faculty advisors. Discussions may include the engineering curriculum and student programs, what engineers do, the character of engineering careers, active research areas in the college and in engineering in general, and study and examination skills useful for engineering students. Groups may visit campus academic, engineering, and research facilities.

Course details →

Data and Resources

News

[2026-10] [Invited Talk] Dr. Xiang was invited to give a talk on Physical AI at the Autonomous and Intelligent Robotics (AIR) Lab at Lehigh University today!

[2026-10] [Invited Talk] Dr. Xiang was invited to give a talk titled "From Lab to Field: Bridging Physical AI, Digital Twins, and Domain-Aware Robotics for Real-World Deployment" at IROS Conference in Pittsburgh, PA.

[2026-10] [Service] Dr. Xiang served as an Associate Editor for IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2027.

[2026-10] [Conference] Two papers presented at IROS 2026, congratulations Prem and Xingjian!

[2026-9] [Invited Talk] Dr. Xiang was invited to give a seminar about “AI-Driven Robotics for Precision Crop Production and Plant Health” in at Cornell SIPS.

[2026-9] [Service] Dr. Xiang served as a Session Chair at IROS Conference 2026.

[2026-7] [Awards] PhD student Xingjian Li won Third Place in AOCABFE Paper Competition.

[2026-7] [Conference] Our team presents at the ASABE Conference in Indianapolis!

[2026-6] [Funding] Our collaborative project on robotic disease monitoring is funded by 2026 Academic Venture Fund grant from the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.

[2026-6] [Funding] PhD student Weilong He and undergraduate student Kenneth Chenango Kniffin’s research projects are funded by CIDA.

[2026-5] [Funding] PhD student Weilong He received Cornell Atkinson’s Graduate Research Grants.

[2026-5] [Invited Talk] Dr. Lirong Xiang delivered a talk at the Embodied AI Virtual Summit organized by Cisco Research.

[2026-5] [Guest Lecture] Dr. Lirong Xiang was invited to deliver a guest lecture for UC Davis EBS 290 (Graduate Seminar in Biological Systems Engineering).

[2026-4] [Award] Ph.D. student Xingjian Li won 2nd place at the 17th Annual Biological and Environmental Engineering Research Symposium.

[2026-4] [Guest Lecture] Dr. Lirong Xiang was invited to deliver a guest lecture for UGA ENGR 8990 (Advanced Topics in Engineering: Machine and Computer Vision for Engineers).

[2026-3] [Invited Talk] Dr. Lirong Xiang delivered a talk at the Raymond F. Baker Plant Breeding Symposium at Iowa State University.

[2026-3] [Student Achievement] Ph.D. student Weilong He received the Cornell Atkinson Graduate Research Grant. Congratulations!

[2026-3] [Seminar Talk] Dr. Lirong Xiang presented at the Cornell Robotics Seminar titled “From Lab to Field: Bridging Physical AI, Digital Twins, and Domain-Aware Robotics for Real-World Deployment.”

[2026-2] [Service] Dr. Lirong Xiang served as a judge at the Cornell CIDA Hackathon.

[2026-2] [Invited Talk] Dr. Lirong Xiang delivered a seminar at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) AI and Data Science Seminar Series.

[2025-12] [Symposium] Dr. Xiang is invited as a panelist at the CIDA Digital Agriculture Symposium to discuss “Robotics and Artificial Intelligence for Resilient Agriculture.”

[2025-12] [Research] Our tomato disease project has been released. Learn more here.

[2025-11] [Invited Talk] Dr. Xiang is invited to give a talk titled “Applications of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence in Plant Breeding and Genetics” at the CANVAS 2025 Symposium, Salt Lake City, UT.

[2025-11] [Outreach] Dr. Xiang joined Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering (GLASE) as a team member!

[2025-10] [Conference] We presented our robot at the NERC Robotics Conference hosted at Cornell University!

[2025-9] [Invited Talk] Dr. Xiang is invited to give a talk titled “Integrated AI and Robotics in Precision Agriculture” at Cornell AgriTech, Geneva, NY.

[2025-8] [Lab] Xiang’s lab is now based at Cornell University!

[2025-7] [Extension] Xiang's team demonstrated robotic phenotyping systems at the NC Tomato Field Day.!

[2025-7] [Award] Weilong received the Graduate Scholarly Achievement Award from AOCABFE. Congratulations!

[2025-7] [Award] Weilong received the Graduate Leadership and Service Award from AOCABFE. Congratulations!

[2025-7] [Award] Dr. Xiang received the Early Career Award from Association of Overseas Chinese Agricultural, Biological, and Food Engineers (AOCABFE). Congratulations!

[2025-6] [Outreach] Dr. Xiang is leading a summer camp with Weilong and Alex for high school students.

[2025-5] [Competition] Our team secured third place at RMGC Picking in Clutter Challenge at 2025 ICRA conference!

[2025-5] [Service] Dr. Xiang served as a Session Chair for ICRA Conference in Atlanta.

[2025-4] [Award] Weilong He won the prestigious NC State College of Engineering Doctoral Scholar of the Year. Congratulations!

[2025-4] [Award] Dr. Xiang received the department Outstanding Research Award. Congratulations!

[2025-4] [Award] Evelynn Wilcox won the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations!

[2025-4] [Invited Talk] Dr. Xiang is invited to give a talk at the Genetic Engineering and Society (GES) Colloquium!

[2025-3] [Competition] Postdoc Dr. Prem Raj won 3rd place in the BAE Three-Minute Thesis Competition. Congratulations!

[2025-3] [Award] Dr. Xiang won the Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) New Innovator Award. Congratulations!

[2025-3] [Service] Dr. Xiang is invited as a panelist for the Career Paths Panel at the ASPB Southern Section Regional Meeting.

[2025-1] [Award] Ph.D. student Weilong He was named one of Seed World’s Rising Seed Stars in 2025. Congratulations!

[2024-12] [Award] Congrats to Dr. Xiang for being named NC State 2024-25 class of Goodnight Early Career Innovators!

[2024-9] [Invited Talk] Dr. Xiang is invited to give a talk at Philippine Rice Research Institute!

[2023-5] [Funding] Our project about tomato disease is funded by USDA-NIFA. Cheers!

[2024-8] [Research] Weilong's work about plant phenotyping is featured in CALS Magazine. Cheers!

[2024-8] [Competition] Our robotics team, WolfAdvance, won first place in the advanced division at the 2024 ASABE Robotics Competition! Congratulations!

[2024-8] [Competition] Our robotics team, RoboPack, won third place in the standard division at the 2024 ASABE Robotics Competition! Congratulations!

[2024-7] [Research] Our work collaborating with Dr. Lina Quesada is featured in NC State News!

[2024-7] [Research] Our work collaborating with Dr. Chris Reberg-Horton is featured on ABC11 Raleigh-Durham!

[2024-4] [Extension] We will lead a summer camp for high school students. More details at Residential Programs for Rising 11th/12th Grade Students. Join us for agricultural robotics!

[2024-3] [Service] Dr. Xiang is visiting University of Moldova as part of the NC State delegation.

[2024-9] [Invited Talk] Dr. Xiang is invited to give a talk at Corn Breeding Research Meeting in Raleigh, NC!

[2024-1] [Service] Dr. Xiang serves as a guest editor for Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. Welcome to submit your work here!

[2024-1] [Competition] Zhenghua and Weilong won the Best Prototype Award at NC State’s Sustainability Innovation Competition, Make-A-Thon. Congrats!

[2023-9] [Award] Weilong He received the Norma L. Trolinder N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative Graduate Student Endowment Award. Congratulations!

[2023-8] [Lab] Welcome Zhenghua Zhang to AR Lab!

[2023-7] [Competition] Our robotics team won first place in the 2023 ASABE Robotics Competition! Congratulations to Team RoboPack!

[2023-7] [Competition] Weilong He won 3rd place in the AOCABFE Student Paper Competition. Congratulations!

[2023-6] [Extension] Dr. Xiang is leading a summer camp for high school students. Biological and Agricultural Engineering Summer Workshops Empower Students for the Future!

[2023-5] [Funding] Our project is funded by Chancellor's Innovation Fund. Cheers!

[2024-9] [Invited Talk] Dr. Xiang is invited to give a talk at Pickle Packers International Conference!

[2023-4] [Research] Our work about robotic plant phenotying was highlighted in the NSF newsletter!

[2023-1] [Lab] Welcome Weilong He to AR Lab!

[2023-1] [Funding] Our project is funded by Cotton Inc. Cheers!

[2022-8] [Lab] Dr. Xiang joined NC State as an Assistant Professor!

Outreach

...
Outreach 2026.10
Dr. Xiang was invited to give a talk at IROS 2026.
...
Outreach 2026.9
Presenting our phenotyping robot at Vegetable Breeding Institute (VBI) Field Days.
...
Outreach 2026.9
Presenting our phenotyping robot at Vegetable Breeding Institute (VBI) Field Days.
...
Outreach 2026.9
Presenting our phenotyping robot at Vegetable Breeding Institute (VBI) Field Days.
...
Outreach 2026.8
We had a great time demonstrating our agricultural robots at the NY State Fair and sharing our work with the broader community.
...
Outreach 2026.8
We had a great time demonstrating our agricultural robots at the NY State Fair and sharing our work with the broader community.
...
Outreach 2026.8
We had a great time demonstrating our agricultural robots at the NY State Fair and sharing our work with the broader community.
...
Lab 2026.8
Our lab hosted 4 high school students this summer.
...
Lab 2026.8
Our lab hosted 4 high school students this summer.
...
Lab 2026.8
Our lab hosted 4 high school students this summer.
...
Lab 2026.8
Our lab hosted 4 high school students this summer.
...
Outreach 2026.4
Xiang presented at The Future Civilizations Conference (organized by Cornell students).
...
Outreach 2026.4
Zhenghua presented at The Future Civilizations Conference (organized by Cornell students).
...
Outreach 2026.4
Zhenghua presented a weeding robot at the conference.
...
Outreach 2026.3
Serve as a judge at the CIDA Digital Agriculture Hackathon.
...
Outreach 2026.3
CIDA hackathon
...
Outreach 2025.12
Serve as a panelist at the CIDA Symposium.
...
Outreach 2025.7
Summer camp for K-12 students!
...
Outreach 2025.7
Summer camp for K-12 students!
...
Outreach 2025.7
Summer camp for K-12 students!
...
Extension 2025.5
Xingjian is demoing virtual phenotyping at UNC System Day!
...
Outreach 2024.10
PhD student Zhenghua Zhang presenting legged robots at 2024 CALS Tailgate.
...
Outreach 2024.7
2024 Summer Camp
...
Robotics 2024.7
2024 Summer Camp
...
Robotics 2024.7
2024 Summer Camp
...
Robotics 2024.7
2024 Summer Camp

Gallery

...
Research 2026.9
Photorealistic digital twin systems for controlled environment agriculture.
...
Lab Gathering 2026.9
Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival!
...
Lab Gathering 2026.9
Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival!
...
Research 2026.8
We took our robot to Indian Creek Farm for some field testing!
...
Research 2026.8
We run the Amiga robot in the field to collect data.
...
Lab 2026.8
Our team works on a robotic project.
...
Lab 2026.7
Danny Bernstein, the founder of RESERVOIR visited our lab!
...
Research 2026.7
Weilong and Natalie test our vacuum trap in a corn field.
...
Research 2026.6
The AVF project!
...
Research 2026.6
The AVF project!
...
Research 2026.6
The AVF project!
...
Poster 2026.4
Xingjian won 3rd place in the poster competition.
...
Poster 2025.10
PhD student Xing presents at the 2025 Northeast Robotics Colloquium at Cornell.
...
Research 2025.8
UAV and UGV systems for collecting data in the field.
...
Conference 2025.5
Our team at ICRA 2025 in Atlanta!
...
Conference 2025.5
Our team participated in a robotic grasping competition and won 3rd place!
...
Conference 2025.5
Shengdao at ICRA 2025!
...
Research 2025.6
Zhenghua and Weilong testing a robot in the field.
...
Lab 2025.3
Zhenghua and Weilong Testing the Robot!
...
Lab 2025.3
Group Photo!
...
Lab 2025.2
Postdoc Prem Presents Our Interdisciplinary Research!
...
Lab 2024.11
Thanksgiving Group Gathering!
...
Teaching 2024.10
Zhenghua is giving a guest lecture for E102!
...
Lab 2024.9
Weilong with Dr. Adrian Percy at Discover PSI.
...
Extension 2024.9
Zhenghua, Xingjian, and Weilong present our research at Discover PSI.
...
Research 2024.8
Robotic Sweetpotato Transplanting!
...
Robotics 2024.7
2024 ASABE Robotics Competition Advanced Division, International Champion!
...
Robotics 2024.7
2024 ASABE Robotics Competition Standard Division, Third Place!
...
Research 2024.5
We test our customized vacuum trap with Dr. Quesada’s lab in the field
...
Robotics 2024
Spider Robot
...
Robotics 2024
PhD student Zhenghua Zhang is introducing his Spider Robot
...
Robotics 2024
Robot Field Test
...
Robotics Hackathon 2024.3
2024 Visit to Moldova
...
Guest Lecture 2024.3
2024 Visit to Moldova
...
Robotics Hackathon 2024.3
2024 Visit to Moldova
...
HuskyBot for Data Collection 2023
Tomato Disease Phenotyping
...
Unreal Engine for Control Optimization 2023
Tomato Disease Phenotyping
...
Amiga Robot for Weeding 2023
Robotic Weeder
...
CALS Tailgate 2023.10
Robotics
...
CALS Tailgate 2023.10
Our presentation team
...
CALS Tailgate 2023.10
Presentation at the NC State's Chancellor's suite
...
Lab Gathering 2023.8
Refreshing the mind with picnic!
...
Lab Gathering 2023.8
Refreshing the mind with kayaking!
...
Lab Gathering 2023.8
Refreshing the mind with kayaking!
...
ASABE Robotics Competition 2023.7
First Place!
...
ASABE Robotics Competition 2023.7
First Place!
...
ASABE Robotics Competition 2023.7
Cotton harvesting and mapping
...
Ag Robotics 2023.6
2023 Summer Camp
...
Ag Robotics 2023.6
2023 Summer Camp
...
Cucurbits 2023.5
Disease Detection
...
Phenotyping 2022
Husky Robot
...
Robotic Weeder 2022
Amiga Robot
...
Sensing 2022
Legged Robot
...
RoAD 2021
2D Image Acquisition
...
RoAD 2021
3D Scanning
...
RoAD 2021
Watering
...
RoAD 2021
Point Cloud
...
RoAD 2021
Merged Point Cloud
...
RoAD 2021
Leaf Segmentation
...
RoAD 2021
Leaf Segmentation
...
RoAD 2021
Plant Height
...
RoAD 2021
Convex Hull Volume
...
PhenoBot 2021
PhenoBot and PhenoStereo
...
Enviratron 2021
Rover
...
PhenoBot 2021
Count soybean pods
...
Enviratron 2021
Xiang is interviewed by U.S. Farm Report
...
PhenoBot 2021
Count soybean pods
...
PhenoBot 2021
Field Day

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the generous support from our past and current sponsors:

Sponsors

Let's Get In Touch!

Feel free to reach out if you're interested in anything you see here!

Lirong Xiang, Assistant Professor
Automation and Robotics Lab
204 Riley-Robb Hall, Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
E-mail: lxiang@cornell.edu
Page built and maintained by Lirong Xiang
Design adapted from Start Bootstrap and Tyler Nigon
© 2021-2026 by Lirong Xiang