Lihua Zeng

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Lihua Zeng is a leading figure in agricultural robotics, specializing in the development of intelligent systems for tree fruit production. Her research focuses on the intersection of machine vision, robotic manipulation, and precision agriculture, with a primary goal of automating labor-intensive tasks like pruning and harvesting. A major contribution is her work on a novel 3D laser vision system for robotic apple harvesting, which addressed the critical challenge of accurately detecting and localizing fruit in complex orchard environments. This foundational work, while early in its citation impact, paved the way for more robust perception in agricultural robots. Her most influential study to date, "Development of a Robotic End-Effector for Apple Tree Pruning" (2020), has garnered 34 citations. In this work, she engineered a two-degree-of-freedom end-effector and established a key empirical relationship (R² = 0.93) between branch diameter and cutting force for ‘Fuji’ apple trees, enabling precise, automated pruning. Zeng’s contributions are vital for creating a sustainable, automated future for specialty crop agriculture, directly addressing labor shortages and production costs.