Washington State University irrigation technology specialist Troy Peters has been named the new director of the university’s Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems, or CPAAS, in Prosser.
Peters replaces Manoj Karkee, who is now a principal investigator at Cornell University’s Ag Robotics Laboratory in the university’s department of biological and environmental engineering.
Located at the WSU Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center, CPAAS is a transdisciplinary center for research into agricultural robotics, automation and sensing.
Peters, a professor and extension specialist in the department of biological systems engineering, has been at WSU-Prosser since 2006, according to a university news release.
Peters is an expert on irrigation technology and has researched numerous irrigation techniques, including low-elevation, spraying sprinklers on center pivot systems, not used in tree fruit but part of about 80 percent of irrigated farms in Washington, according to the release.
He also helped develop a model that uses weather data to measure heat stress on fruit.
Increasing collaboration with industry and advancing existing research are among his highest priorities, Peters said in the release.
