Robots for monitoring the environment

Purpose – This paper aims to provide a review of the role of robots for monitoring the environment. Design/methodology/approach – Following a short introduction, this paper discusses developments in aquatic, terrestrial and airborne robots for monitoring the environment. Brief conclusions are drawn. Findings – This shows that robots are being developed for all manner of environmental monitoring applications. Aquatic devices are attracting the greatest attention but both terrestrial and airborne robots have the potential to play an important, future role. In many instances, their deployment reflects the difficulties in or impossibility of using manual monitoring methods. A longer‐term vision of large numbers of robots conducting environmental monitoring on a routine basis is unlikely to be realised unless lower cost solutions can be developed. Originality/value – Environmental monitoring robots have been under development since the 1990s and this paper provides a review of recent activities.