Agricultural systems are uniquely complex systems, given that agricultural systems are parts of natural and ecological systems. Those aspects bring in a substantial degree of uncertainty in system operation. Also, impact factors, such as weather factors, are critical in agricultural systems but these factors are uncontrollable in system management. Modern agriculture has been evolving through precision agriculture beginning in the late 1980s and biotechnological innovations in the early 2000s. Precision agriculture implements site-specific crop production management by integrating agricultural mechanization and information technology in geographic information system (GIS), global navigation satellite system (GNSS), and remote sensing. Now, precision agriculture is set to evolve into smart agriculture with advanced systematization, informatization, intelligence and automation. From precision agriculture to smart agriculture, there is a substantial amount of specific control and communication problems that have been investigated and will continue to be studied.
In this book, the core ideas and methods from control problems in agricultural production systems are extracted, and a system view of agricultural production is formulated for the analysis and design of management strategies to control and optimize agricultural production systems while exploiting the intrinsic feedback information-exchanging mechanisms. On this basis, the theoretical framework of agricultural cybernetics is established to predict and control the behavior of agricultural production systems through control theory.
Author Biography:
Dr. Yanbo Huang is a Research Agricultural Engineer and Lead Scientist of aerial application technology and remote sensing in the Crop Production Systems Research Unit of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS) at Stoneville, Mississippi. His research interests are in the areas of process modeling, optimization and control, image processing and analysis, and agricultural information technology. Before joining USDA ARS, Dr. Huang worked at Texas A&M University and the Chinese Academy of Mechanics and Electronics Industry. Dr. Huang has authored and co-authored over 200 scientific publications, including 2 books, 10 book chapters and 110 peer-reviewed journal articles, and received best paper awards from a number of international journals and societies. He also has served as Adjunct Professor at Texas A&M University, Mississippi State University, and Delta State University. Dr. Huang served as Editor-In-Chief of the International Journal andAgricultural Science and Technology and the Journal of Agricultural Science and Applications, and Associate Editor of the Transactions of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). He is Section Editor of the International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. He served as Panel Manager for USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and panelist for National Science Foundation (NSF) and USDA NIFA and proposal reviewer for USDA NIFA, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, U.S. Citrus Research and Development Foundation, the US-Israel Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD) and national funding agencies of Europe, including the Belgian Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), the Kazakhstan National Centre of Science and Technology Evaluation, the Dutch Technology Foundation, and the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation. He was the President of the Association of Overseas Chinese Agricultural, Biological and Food Engineers from 2016 to 2017.
Dr. Qin Zhang is the Director of the Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems (CPAAS), and a Professor of Agricultural Automation in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering, of Washington State University (WSU). His research interests are in the areas of agricultural automation, agricultural robotics, and off-road equipment mechatronics. Prior to his current position, he was a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, worked at Caterpillar Inc., and taught at Zhejiang Agricultural University in China. Based on his research outcomes, he has authored/edited 10 books, written dozens separate book chapters, edited three conference proceedings, published over 180 peer reviewed journal articles and 60+ other peer reviewed publications, plus have been awarded 11 U.S. patents. He is currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief for Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. Dr. Qin Zhang received his B.S. degree in engineering from Zhejiang Agricultural University, China; M.S. degree from the University of Idaho and Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, both in agricultural engineering. Dr. Qin Zhang is a Member of Washington State Academy of Science, a Fellow of International Academy of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (iAABE), a Fellow of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), a Full Member of the Club of Bologna (a World Task-force on the Strategies for the Development of Agricultural Mechanization), and an Honorary Vice President of the International Commission of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (CIGR). Dr, Zhang has guest lectured over 60 universities in more than 20 countries.
