Systems and methods for remote unmanned raman spectroscopy

A Raman spectroscopy sensor integrated with an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) includes a UGV having a robot arm (425) and a camera (420) mounted on the robot arm. A laser and telescope (450) associated with a Raman sensor are mounted on the robot arm (425) in such a way as to point in substantially the same direction in which the camera is pointed. A Raman spectral data acquisition and control module (464) is mounted on the UGV and is configured to receive Raman spectral data from the telescope. A remote base station (480) having a display (486) and a data processing and analysis module (484) is configured to receive data from the data acquisition and control module and to display for an operator images from the camera and information related to the Raman sensor. An autofocus system is preferably employed to automatically control telescope focus and thereby enable the Raman sensor to operate over a wide range, e.g., 0.5 m to 10 m.