A critical survey on marsupial robotic teams for environmental monitoring of water bodies

A robust maintenance of ecosystems demands for highly accurate and frequent monitoring of their status. The extension and remoteness of some environments renders their human-based monitoring extremely difficult. Riverine environments are a notorious example, as their sampling requires to bear into account both streams and riverbanks. The relevance of monitoring riverine environments is magnified by the intricate interactions that occur between river waters and coastal waters. This article provides a critical survey of existing solutions using robots for environmental monitoring of water bodies. Based on the survey, this article argues that autonomous robotic marsupial systems are especially adequate for the tasks at hand. Lessons learned, as well as future avenues on the application of marsupial robotic teams to environmental monitoring, are laid out in this article.