Kirk Howatt

North Dakota State University

Papers

6

Total Citations

154

H-Index

5

About

Kirk Howatt is a leading researcher in precision agriculture, with a particular focus on AI-driven weed management, agricultural robotics, and computer vision applications in crop science. His work sits at the cutting edge of sustainable farming technology, where he investigates how autonomous ground robots and advanced deep learning models can revolutionize site-specific weed control. Howatt's most influential contribution — a 2024 systematic review on ground robotic technologies for precision weed management, now cited 87 times — established a comprehensive framework for understanding navigation systems, imaging sensors, and robotic weed control strategies. Building on this, he has pioneered multispecies weed and crop detection systems using state-of-the-art YOLO architectures, developing lightweight real-time models deployable across diverse field environments. His creation of open-source, multi-format weed image datasets has been especially impactful, providing the AI and agricultural research communities with critical training resources that underpin robotic weed control systems worldwide. Earlier work exploring hyperspectral imaging combined with greenhouse robotics for soybean and weed classification demonstrates his long-standing commitment to bridging hardware innovation with machine learning. With a rapidly growing citation record, Howatt's research is shaping the future of intelligent, sustainable crop production systems.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

5
H-Index
6
Papers
154
Total Citations
26
Avg Citations/Paper
🏆 Most Cited Paper
Advances in ground robotic technologies for site-specific weed management in precision agriculture: A review
87 citations · 2024
📈 Most Prolific Year: 2024 (2 Papers)
🤝 Key Collaborators: 20
🏛 Institutions: North Dakota State University

Top Papers

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Key Collaborators

Contact & Links

Available for collaboration
Content generated · 14 days ago