Robots on the Rise in Parks and Protected Areas: A Scoping Review and Future Opportunities

Despite increasing visitation and importance, parks, recreation and other publicly protected areas are consistently challenged by insufficient management and monitoring resources. Pandemic conditions exacerbated these challenges and accelerated both interest in and implementation of management automation, including robots. Following the International Federations of Robots, robots are defined as an actuated mechanism programmable in two axes. The breadth of robotic applications and challenges in parks and protected areas remains uncertain, preventing informed management decisions. Thus, a scoping review was conducted to understand existing robotic applications in publicly protected parks and protected areas as well as the challenges and opportunities associated with them, as detailed in scholarly literature. Of the 2794 published studies initially identified, 171 were ultimately reviewed. With the first documented robotic application appearing in 2009, results reveal a growth since 2017 and the dominance of drones to survey vegetation or wildlife in parks or other protected areas. While applications have occurred across the globe, most work has been primarily in China or the United States and most frequently in parks, followed by protected water bodies. Data accuracy and time savings were heralded benefits of the robots by more than half of the reviewed studies, while robot-related risks were identified in fewer than 12%, focused on safety for both personnel and the robot. As robots continue to rise within the park and protected area management suite, we synthesize gaps and opportunities to consider for their efficient integration into outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism management and monitoring. Further, we share a path to move forward thoughtfully, with a critical assessment of local needs, robot policy, social acceptance, and professional capacity.