Merritt Jenkins

Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University

Papers

Total Citations

190

H-Index

About

Merritt Jenkins is a leading figure in agricultural robotics, whose work is transforming how we understand and interact with crop plants. Jenkins’s primary research areas lie at the intersection of field robotics, computer vision, and plant phenotyping, with a focus on developing autonomous systems that can operate reliably in complex, outdoor environments. His most impactful contribution is the "Robotanist," a ground-based agricultural robot for high-throughput crop phenotyping, which has garnered over 154 citations. This seminal work established a low-cost, field-deployable platform for measuring critical physiological and morphological traits, directly enabling geneticists to map genotypes to phenotypes with unprecedented efficiency. Jenkins has also made notable advances in underwater manipulation, demonstrating how gentle suction flow can dramatically improve a robot’s ability to pinch and handle small objects in challenging aquatic settings. Further extending his impact, he developed a deep learning-based pipeline for in-situ sorghum stalk detection and grasping, showcasing the power of modern AI for precise, automated plant interaction. Through these innovations, Jenkins is not only automating labor-intensive tasks but also providing the foundational tools for a new era of data-driven agriculture.