Freshwater ecosystems are vast areas that are constantly changing and evolving. To maintain the ecosystem as well as the structures located close to bodies of water, frequent monitoring is required. Although dangerous and time consuming, manual operations are the conventional way of monitoring such areas. Recently, Autonomous Surface Vehicles (ASVs) have been proposed to undertake the monitoring task. As any other platform, ASVs have limitations, such as a restricted point of view and access only where the water is sufficiently deep. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can fly over any terrain and provide a “bird's‐eye‐view” of the environment. However, UAVs have limited operational time due to power constraints. Heterogeneous marsupial robotic systems use different types of robots to augment their operation envelope, taking advantage of their individual strengths. A marsupial survey system comprised an ASV and a UAV for freshwater monitoring is developed and presented in this paper. This system is able to complete long missions and reach remote locations while also being able to generate detailed maps and inspections of points of interest. The system was thoroughly tested during a 6‐month period in a number of field deployments in freshwater ecosystems at Lake Murray and at the Congaree River, SC, USA, to validate its capabilities.

中文翻译：

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用于调查和检查淡水生态系统的有袋机器人系统

淡水生态系统是一个不断变化和发展的广阔地区。为了维持生态系统以及靠近水体的结构，需要经常进行监测。尽管危险且耗时，但是手动操作是监视此类区域的常规方法。最近，已经提出了自主水面车辆（ASV）来承担监视任务。与任何其他平台一样，ASV也有局限性，例如视角受限，仅在水深的地方才能进入。无人机（UAV）可以在任何地形上飞行，并提供环境的“鸟瞰”。但是，由于功率限制，无人机的工作时间有限。异型有袋机器人系统使用不同类型的机器人来扩大其操作范围，利用他们的个人优势。本文开发并介绍了一种由ASV和无人飞行器组成的有袋动物调查系统，用于淡水监测。该系统能够完成长时间的任务并到达遥远的位置，同时还能够生成详细的地图和对兴趣点的检查。该系统经过六个月的全面测试，在默里湖和美国南卡罗来纳州康加里河的淡水生态系统中进行了许多现场部署，以验证其功能。