# Designing ReachBot: System Design Process with a Case Study of a Martian Lava Tube Mission

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.11534 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.11534/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 20 Oct 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Olympus: A Jumping Quadruped for Planetary Exploration Utilizing Reinforcement Learning for In-Flight Attitude Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.03574/) (2025)
- [A Skeleton-based Approach For Rock Crack Detection Towards A Climbing Robot Application](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.05139/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In this paper we present a trade study-based method to optimize the architecture of ReachBot, a new robotic concept that uses deployable booms as prismatic joints for mobility in environments with adverse gravity conditions and challenging terrain. Specifically, we introduce a design process wherein we analyze the compatibility of ReachBot's design with its mission. We incorporate terrain parameters and mission requirements to produce a final design optimized for mission-specific objectives. ReachBot's design parameters include (1) number of booms, (2) positions and orientations of the booms on ReachBot's chassis, (3) boom maximum extension, (4) boom cross-sectional geometry, and (5) number of active/passive degrees-of-freedom at each joint. Using first-order approximations, we analyze the relationships between these parameters and various performance metrics including stability, manipulability, and mechanical interference. We apply our method to a mission where ReachBot navigates and gathers data from a martian lava tube. The resulting design is shown in Fig. 1.