RT Journal Article
T1 Opportunities and challenges for monitoring terrestrial biodiversity in the robotics age
A1 Pringle, Stephen
A1 Dallimer, Martin
A1 Goddard, Mark A.
A1 Le Goff, Léni K.
A1 Hart, Emma
A1 Langdale, Simon J.
A1 Fisher, Jessica C.
A1 Abad, Sara-Adela
A1 Ancrenaz, Marc
A1 Angeoletto, Fabio
A1 Auat Cheein, Fernando
A1 Austen, Gail E.
A1 Bailey, Joseph J.
A1 Baldock, Katherine C. R.
A1 Banin, Lindsay F.
A1 Banks-Leite, Cristina
A1 Barau, Aliyu S.
A1 Bashyal, Reshu
A1 Bates, Adam J.
A1 Bicknell, Jake E.
A1 Bielby, Jon
A1 Bosilj, Petra
A1 Bush, Emma R.
A1 Butler, Simon J.
A1 Carpenter, Dan
A1 Clements, Christopher F.
A1 Cully, Antoine
A1 Davies, Kendi F.
A1 Deere, Nicolas J.
A1 Dodd, Michael
A1 Drinkwater, Rosie
A1 Driscoll, Don A.
A1 Dutilleux, Guillaume
A1 Dyrmann, Mads
A1 Edwards, David P.
A1 Farhadinia, Mohammad S.
A1 Faruk, Aisyah
A1 Field, Richard
A1 Fletcher, Robert J.
A1 Foster, Chris W.
A1 Fox, Richard
A1 Francksen, Richard M.
A1 Franco, Aldina M. A.
A1 Gainsbury, Alison M.
A1 Gardner, Charlie J.
A1 Giorgi, Ioanna
A1 Griffiths, Richard A.
A1 Hamaza, Salua
A1 Hanheide, Marc
A1 Hayward, Matt W.
A1 Hedblom, Marcus
A1 Helgason, Thorunn
A1 Heon, Sui P.
A1 Hughes, Kevin A.
A1 Hunt, Edmund R.
A1 Ingram, Daniel J.
A1 Jackson Mills, George
A1 Jowett, Kelly
A1 Keitt, Timothy H.
A1 Kloepper, Laura N.
A1 Kramer Schadt, Stephanie
A1 Labisko, Jim
A1 Labrosse, Frédéric
A1 Lawson, Jenna
A1 Lecomte, Nicolas
A1 de Lima, Ricardo F.
A1 Littlewood, Nick A.
A1 Marshall, Harry H.
A1 Masala, Giovanni L.
A1 Maskell, Lindsay C.
A1 Matechou, Eleni
A1 Mazzolai, Barbara
A1 McConnell, Alistair
A1 Melbourne, Brett A.
A1 Miriyev, Aslan
A1 Nana, Eric Djomo
A1 Ossola, Alessandro
A1 Papworth, Sarah
A1 Parr, Catherine L.
A1 Payo Payo, Ana
A1 Perry, Gad
A1 Pettorelli, Nathalie
A1 Pillay, Rajeev
A1 Potts, Simon G.
A1 Prendergast Miller, Miranda T.
A1 Qie, Lan
A1 Rolley Parnell, Persie
A1 Rossiter, Stephen J.
A1 Rowcliffe, Marcus
A1 Rumble, Heather
A1 Sadler, Jon P.
A1 Sandom, Christopher J.
A1 Sanyal, Asiem
A1 Schrodt, Franziska
A1 Sethi, Sarab S.
A1 Shabrani, Adi
A1 Siddall, Robert
A1 Smith, Simón C.
A1 Snep, Robbert P. H.
A1 Soulsbury, Carl D.
A1 Stanley, Margaret C.
A1 Stephens, Philip A.
A1 Stephenson, P. J.
A1 Struebig, Matthew J.
A1 Studley, Matthew
A1 Svátek, Martin
A1 Tang, Gilbert
A1 Taylor, Nicholas K.
A1 Umbers, Kate D. L.
A1 Ward, Robert J.
A1 White, Patrick J. C.
A1 Whittingham, Mark J.
A1 Wich, Serge
A1 Williams, Christopher D.
A1 Yakubu, Ibrahim B.
A1 Yoh, Natalie
A1 Zaidi, Syed A. R.
A1 Zmarz, Anna
A1 Zwerts, Joeri A.
A1 Davies, Zoe G.
AB With biodiversity loss escalating globally, a step change is needed in our capacity to accurately monitor species populations across ecosystems. Robotic and autonomous systems (RAS) offer technological solutions that may substantially advance terrestrial biodiversity monitoring, but this potential is yet to be considered systematically. We used a modified Delphi technique to synthesize knowledge from 98 biodiversity experts and 31 RAS experts, who identified the major methodological barriers that currently hinder monitoring, and explored the opportunities and challenges that RAS offer in overcoming these barriers. Biodiversity experts identified four barrier categories: site access, species and individual identification, data handling and storage, and power and network availability. Robotics experts highlighted technologies that could overcome these barriers and identified the developments needed to facilitate RAS-based autonomous biodiversity monitoring. Some existing RAS could be optimized relatively easily to survey species but would require development to be suitable for monitoring of more ‘difficult’ taxa and robust enough to work under uncontrolled conditions within ecosystems. Other nascent technologies (for instance, new sensors and biodegradable robots) need accelerated research. Overall, it was felt that RAS could lead to major progress in monitoring of terrestrial biodiversity by supplementing rather than supplanting existing methods. Transdisciplinarity needs to be fostered between biodiversity and RAS experts so that future ideas and technologies can be codeveloped effectively.
PB Springer
SN 2397-334X
YR 2025
FD 2025-05
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/123151
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/123151
LA eng
NO Pringle, S., Dallimer, M., Goddard, M.A. et al. Opportunities and challenges for monitoring terrestrial biodiversity in the robotics age. Nat Ecol Evol 9, 1031–1042 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02704-9
NO This work was funded by the EPSRC UK-RAS Network. D.J.I. is funded by a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship (grant ref: MR/W006316/1), and Z.G.D. and J.C.F. were supported by Research England’s ‘Expanding Excellence in England’ fund.
NO EPSRC UK-RAS Network
NO UK Research and Innovation
DS Docta Complutense
RD 11 ago 2025