The future of farming has been Professor Yongsheng Gao’s research focus for many years, and now the AI expert will expand on his impactful work within the agricultural and aquatecture sectors with the announcement of prestigious research funding.
As one of eight new projects announced under the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) 2025 Industry Laureate Fellowships scheme, Professor Gao aims to overcome the major barriers in implementing machine solutions in agricultural environments to transform Australia’s farming industry.
His project, titled ‘Enabling Technology beyond Human Capability for Automated Farming’ valued at almost $4 million, includes industry partner Australian Bay Lobster Producers Limited (ABPL), based at Chinderah, New South Wales. ABPL have also committed another $1,750,000 cash support and $3,500,000 in-kind over five years.
This project will build a world-first automated sustainable aquaculture farming factory as an exemplar for the industry.
“Farming, with its integration of innovative technologies like automation and machine intelligence, holds the key to bridging this gap and usher agriculture into the modern era.”
Professor Yongsheng Gao
“At Australian Bay Lobster Producers Limited, we have integrated machine vision and robotics technology into many aspects of this world-first lobster farming facility, and this is an integral part of the company’s business strategy.
“Continuous, automated monitoring of larvae tanks allows for precision feeding and optimising growth rate of the larvae, whilst significantly reducing larvae mortality, and labour costs for this critical stage of lobster development
“We want to help growers grow better produce and lower their costs using the wealth of technologies that we have at our disposal, leading to more competitive prices at the supermarkets.”
Professor Yongsheng Gao
Expected outcomes from the project include significant advancement of theories, novel technologies, and highly productive industrial processes that will be broadly applicable in the generation of other automated sustainable farming.
Professor Gao said “this will bring significant economic benefits to the agriculture industry with higher yields, lower costs and environmental impact”.
ARC Chief Executive Officer, Professor Ute Roessner, said the ARC Industry Fellowships Program is supporting academic researchers to build connections with industry, and industry-based researchers to contribute their expertise within university settings, helping address industry-identified challenges and opportunities.
“I am looking forward to seeing the exciting research outcomes and milestones achieved by these Fellows, and how these will be applied for the benefit of the Australian community,” Professor Roessner said.
