This paper underscores the importance of environmental monitoring, and specifically of freshwater ecosystems, which play a critical role in sustaining life and global economy. Despite their importance, insufficient data availability prevents a comprehensive understanding of these ecosystems, thereby impeding informed decision-making concerning their preservation. Aerial-aquatic robots are identified as effective tools for freshwater sensing, offering rapid deployment and avoiding the need of using ships and manned teams. To advance the field of aerial aquatic robots, this paper conducts a comprehensive review of air-water transitions focusing on the water entry strategy of existing prototypes. This analysis also highlights the safety risks associated with each transition and proposes a set of design requirements relating to robots' tasks, mission objectives, and safety measures. To further explore the proposed design requirements, we present a novel robot with VTOL capability, enabling seamless air water transitions.

翻译：本文强调了环境监测的重要性，特别是淡水生态系统监测，其在维持生命和全球经济方面发挥着关键作用。尽管这些生态系统至关重要，但数据可用性不足阻碍了对它们的全面理解，从而影响了有关其保护的明智决策。空水两栖机器人被认为是淡水传感的有效工具，具有快速部署能力，且无需使用船只和人工团队。为推进空水两栖机器人领域的发展，本文对空水转换进行了全面综述，重点关注现有原型机的水中进入策略。该分析还强调了每次转换相关的安全风险，并提出了一套与机器人任务、任务目标和安全措施相关的设计要求。为进一步探索所提出的设计要求，我们展示了一款具有垂直起降能力的新型机器人，可实现无缝的空水转换。