Opportunities and challenges for monitoring terrestrial biodiversity in the robotics age

Pringle, Stephen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9207-6827 , Dallimer, Martin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8120-3309 , Goddard, Mark ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2283-6752 , Le Goff, Léni, Hart, Emma ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5405-4413 , Langdale, Simon, Fisher, Jessica ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1435-9247 , Abad, Sara-Adela ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3471-6942 , Ancrenaz, Marc, Angeoletto, Fabio ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3084-3928 , Auat Cheein, Fernando, Austen, Gail ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6005-4869 , Bailey, Joseph ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9526-7095 , Baldock, Katherine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6849-8747 , Banin, Lindsay ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1168-3914 , Banks-Leite, Cristina ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0091-2857 , Barau, Aliyu ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1259-3929 , Bashyal, Reshu ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7341-9767 , Bates, Adam ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7854-5260 , Bicknell, Jake ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6831-627X , Bielby, Jon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4586-0429 , Bosilj, Petra, Bush, Emma, Butler, Simon, Carpenter, Dan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-5615-6086 , Clements, Christopher ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5677-5401 , Cully, Antoine, Davies, Kendi, Deere, Nicolas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1299-2126 , Dodd, Michael ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2741-7810 , Drinkwater, Rosie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6892-1664 , Driscoll, Don ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1560-5235 , Dutilleux, Guillaume ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3523-0589 , Dyrmann, Mads, Edwards, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8562-3853 , Farhadinia, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5385-6254 , Faruk, Aisyah, Field, Richard ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2613-2688 , Fletcher, Robert ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1717-5707 , Foster, Chris ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7635-6797 , Fox, Richard ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6992-3522 , Francksen, Richard ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1180-726X , Franco, Aldina ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6055-7378 , Gainsbury, Alison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2828-7301 , Gardner, Charlie, Giorgi, Ioanna ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9583-6959 , Griffiths, Richard ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5533-1013 , Hamaza, Salua ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5261-2680 , Hanheide, Marc ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7728-1849 , Hayward, Matt, Hedblom, Marcus ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1594-8665 , Helgason, Thorunn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3639-1499 , Heon, Sui, Hughes, Kevin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2701-726X , Hunt, Edmund ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9647-124X , Ingram, Daniel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5843-220X , Jackson-Mills, George, Jowett, Kelly, Keitt, Timothy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4587-1083 , Kloepper, Laura ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4785-5279 , Kramer-Schadt, Stephanie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9269-4446 , Labisko, Jim ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9324-5899 , Labrosse, Frédéric, Lawson, Jenna, Lecomte, Nicolas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8473-5375 , de Lima, Ricardo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0184-3945 , Littlewood, Nick ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4461-8833 , Marshall, Harry ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2120-243X , Masala, Giovanni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6734-9424 , Maskell, Lindsay, Matechou, Eleni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3626-844X , Mazzolai, Barbara ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0722-8350 , McConnell, Alistair ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3168-1323 , Melbourne, Brett ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8843-4131 , Miriyev, Aslan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2110-2770 , Nana, Eric Djomo, Ossola, Alessandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0507-6026 , Papworth, Sarah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8746-1912 , Parr, Catherine, Payo-Payo, Ana, Perry, Gad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0245-2513 , Pettorelli, Nathalie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1594-6208 , Pillay, Rajeev ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7116-6855 , Potts, Simon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2045-980X , Prendergast-Miller, Miranda, Qie, Lan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7309-7523 , Rolley-Parnell, Persie, Rossiter, Stephen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3881-4515 , Rowcliffe, Marcus, Rumble, Heather ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2510-0166 , Sadler, Jon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0443-4458 , Sandom, Christopher, Sanyal, Asiem ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7523-7916 , Schrodt, Franziska, Sethi, Sarab ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5939-0432 , Shabrani, Adi, Siddall, Robert, Smith, Simón, Snep, Robbert ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7130-9254 , Soulsbury, Carl, Stanley, Margaret, Stephens, Philip ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5849-788X , Stephenson, P.J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0087-466X , Struebig, Matthew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2058-8502 , Studley, Matthew, Svátek, Martin, Tang, Gilbert, Taylor, Nicholas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1268-9469 , Umbers, Kate ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9375-4527 , Ward, Robert ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2343-8473 , White, Patrick ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9349-8447 , Whittingham, Mark, Wich, Serge ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3954-5174 , Williams, Christopher ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0528-3436 , Yakubu, Ibrahim, Yoh, Natalie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6171-3800 , Zaidi, Syed, Zmarz, Anna ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5846-4017 , Zwerts, Joeri ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3841-6389 and Davies, Zoe ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0767-1467 (2025) Opportunities and challenges for monitoring terrestrial biodiversity in the robotics age. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 9 . pp. 1031-1042.

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	Nature Ecology & Evolution
Publisher:	Nature Research
ISSN:	2397-334X
Departments:	Institute of Science and Environment > Forestry and Conservation
Additional Information:	Richard M. Francksen, Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader for BSc. (Hons.) Zoology, University of Cumbria, UK. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
Depositing User:	Insight Administrator
SWORD Depositor:	Insight Administrator
Date Deposited:	10 Jun 2025 09:55
Last Modified:	13 Jun 2025 08:00
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/8867

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