Opportunities and challenges for monitoring terrestrial biodiversity in the robotics age.

ABSTRACT: 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. Roboti

SUBMITTER: Pringle S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12148927 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature