The world is home to many harsh environments which that can cause unexpected issues in many engineered systems. This session is designed to give an overview of some of the different challenges faced by robots and other mechatronic devices face while operating in harsh environments. For the purposes of this session, harsh environments include the oceans, the deserts, mines, volcanoes, outerspace, nuclear waste processing and storage facilities, and industrial processing facilities, and many others. We’ll discuss, at a high-level, challenges that occur when designing oceanic robots, solutions to those challenges, and analogous issues and solutions in other environments.