Dr Chris Lehnert is a Senior Lecturer in Robotics and Autonomous Systems at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and a Chief Investigator at the QUT Centre for Robotics and the Australian Cobotics Centre. He earned a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) from the University of Queensland before completing his PhD at QUT .With over a decade of experience, Dr Lehnert specialises in robotic perception, manipulation systems, and automated solutions for agriculture and industry. Through QUT’s Centre for Robotics, he’s contributed to real‑world projects from fruit‑picking robots to warehouse automation and advanced indoor vertical horticulture systems.
Notable achievements include leading QUT’s 2017 Amazon Robotics Challenge-winning team for a high‑performance picking and stowing robot and leading a team to develop “Harvey,” a capsicum‑harvesting robot capable of picking up to 75 % of greenhouse-grown produce. Currently, under Future Food Systems CRC, he leads multiple projects in protected cropping and indoor farming: a modular vertical farming system , a mobile indoor pollination platform for tomatoes, and robotics technology for automating banana de‑handing for the banana industry. Dr Lehnert is dedicated to transforming agrifood systems with intelligent robotics and IoT-enabled automation making crop production more efficient, sustainable, and less labour-intensive.
