Unmanned vehicles for environmental data collection

Unmanned vehicles have already proved invaluable in environmental field studies by providing levels of spatial-temporal sampling resolution which could have not been attained before. Recent trends show that the levels of spatial-temporal sampling resolutions attained with individual vehicles are feasible for wide areas through the operation of persistent vehicle networks. The possibility of persistent sampling over wide areas has the potential to revolutionize environmental field studies. The roles of unmanned vehicle systems in future environmental field studies are discussed in the light of the recent technological developments and trends, along with the major challenges associated to this vision. The discussion is illustrated with examples of developments from the Underwater Systems and Technologies Laboratory from Porto University, Portugal.