Opportunities and challenges for monitoring terrestrial biodiversity in the robotics age
J. S. Pringle, Martin Dallimer, Mark A. Goddard, Léni K. Le Goff, Emma Hart, Simon J. Langdale, Jessica C. Fisher, Sara-Adela Abad, Marc Ancrenaz, Fábio Angeoletto, Fernando Auat Cheein, Gail E. Austen, Joseph J. Bailey, Katherine C. R. Baldock, Lindsay F. Banin, Cristina Banks-Leite, Aliyu Salisu Barau, Reshu Bashyal, Adam J. Bates, Jake E. Bicknell, Jon Bielby, Petra Bosilj, Emma R. Bush, Simon J. Butler, Dan Carpenter, Christopher F. Clements, Antoine Cully, Kendi F. Davies, Nicolas J. Deere, M Dodd, Rosie Drinkwater, Don A. Driscoll, Guillaume Dutilleux, Mads Dyrmann, David P. Edwards, Mohammad S. Farhadinia, Aisyah Faruk, Richard Field, Robert J. Fletcher, Christopher W. Foster, Richard Fox, Richard M. Francksen, Aldina M. A. Franco, Alison M. Gainsbury, Charlie J. Gardner, Ioanna Giorgi, Richard A. Griffiths, Salua Hamaza, Marc Hanheide, Matt W. Hayward, Marcus Hedblom, Thorunn Helgason, Sui Heon, Kevin A. Hughes, Edmund R. Hunt, Daniel J. Ingram, George Jackson-Mills, Kelly Jowett, Timothy H. Keitt, Laura N. Kloepper, Stephanie Kramer‐Schadt, Jim Labisko, Frédéric Labrosse, Jenna Lawson, Nicolas Lecomte, Ricardo F. de Lima, Nick A. Littlewood, Harry H. Marshall, Giovanni Luca Masala, Lindsay C. Maskell, Eleni Matechou, Barbara Mazzolai, Alistair C. McConnell, Brett A. Melbourne, Aslan Miriyev, Eric Djomo Nana, Alessandro Ossola, Sarah Papworth, Catherine L. Parr, Ana Payo‐Payo, Gad Perry, Nathalie Pettorelli, Rajeev Pillay, Simon G. Potts, Miranda T. Prendergast‐Miller, Lan Qie, Persie Rolley-Parnell, Stephen J. Rossiter, J. Marcus Rowcliffe, Heather Rumble, Jon P. Sadler, Christopher J. Sandom, Asiem Sanyal, Franziska Schrodt, Sarab S. Sethi, Adi Shabrani, Robert Siddall, Simón C. Smith, R.P.H. Snep, Carl D. Soulsbury
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. 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.