Robotic platform for monitoring the biodiversity of retreating glaciers

Global environmental change, in particular rising temperatures, is causing alpine glaciers to retreat and disappear. Glaciers are unique and threatened ecological and human systems that are a major reason for concern, but the consequences of glacier retreat on ecosystems are still poorly known and difficult to measure which makes predictions challenging. It is vitally important to understand and monitor the changes in the biodiversity of these retreating and fast-changing glacier environments to develop solutions for anticipating the impact on glacier retreat on socioecological systems.

However, accessing these environments to collect biodiversity data in the form of images and samples of plants and insects is challenging. Indeed, glacier environments can be inaccessible and dangerous for humans to access, and human presence can have a negative effect on the flora and fauna. Thus, we propose utilising advances in tethered robot systems to develop a monitoring tool for gathering biodiversity data of these inhospitable environments in a safe way.