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Completed TRL 3 (started at 2, targeting 3)
ReachBot is a mobility and mobile manipulation platform that leverages lightweight extendable booms to achieve large reach with a small footprint, giving it unique access to steep, vertical, and overhanging surfaces in Martian caves. Navigating these surfaces is crucial for bringing instruments in contact with targets of significant geological and astrobiological interest. In Phase I, we investigated key feasibility aspects crucial to a ReachBot's cave-exploration mission, and in particular we showed that (1) ReachBot has a significantly expanded reachable and wrench workspace compared to alternative designs, (2) lightweight surface grasping solutions with spiny grippers can reliably grasp onto rocky surfaces with passive actuation, and (3) ReachBot's enhanced mobility and manipulation strength enable new access to significant scientific targets.
In Phase II, we will refine and augment the feasibility studies carried out in Phase I, with a key focus on addressing system robustness and end-to-end concept validation. In particular, we propose four research pillars for this Phase II effort that are crucial to validating ReachBot's utility in a realistic mission scenario. (I) We will optimize ReachBot's reachable workspace while maintaining stable configurations by developing a quantitative metric for robustness. This research pillar addresses ReachBot's ability to overcome the limitations of other robots in navigating cavernous environments. (II) We will develop a strategy to locate, select, and evaluate grasping sites that have a high probability of successful grasping with lightweight grippers. This research pillar supports ReachBot's advantageous mobility paradigm that relies on local perception, autonomous detection, and adherence to grasping sites on cave walls. (III) We will develop control strategies that minimize risk to bolster mission fulfillment, both by anticipating known risk and mitigating unpredictable risks. For example, we will develop controllers that actively damp oscillations in the booms, making ReachBot more robust to the dynamic response of a sudden grasp failure. (IV) We will study ReachBot's performance in a realistic mission environment. By outlining a detailed notional mission, we will determine realistic operational constraints for ReachBot. Then, we will conduct field tests to demonstrate the feasibility of our proposed concept for real-world deployments.
Cliff-like and cavernous features on Mars that would present ancient materials have recently been identified as promising locations of astrobiological interest. Due to their insulating and shielding properties, these caverns provide relatively stable conditions which may promote mineral precipitation and microbial growth. Additionally, the sheltered cavern environments could provide sites for future human habitation . One goal of the proposed technology is to facilitate exploration of cave-like features near Mars’ surface that have so far only been examined via orbiter-based remote sensing. Visiting ancient targets on Mars, such as the Noachian candidate caves of Huo Hsing Vallis and Deuteronilus Mensae, would allow us to probe Mars’ subsurface environments formed at a time when its surface was habitable and during which life on Earth was already evolving. Such caves might be humanity’s best opportunity to probe a Martian habitable environment that has been protected from erosion and radiation. Specifically, candidate entrances to these cave systems provide opportunities for in-situ robotic investigations searching for evidence of ancient or extant subsurface Martian life and pave the road to human exploration. In addition, close inspection of the potential stratified layers in the walls of these caverns may reveal a great deal about the geologic history of Mars, specifically through subsurface stratigraphy. More broadly, and owing to the general absence of plate tectonics on Mars, vertical outcrops (whether in caves or along cliffs)offer a unique opportunity to read the geologic record in a spatially continuous fashion. The proposed technology has the potential to enable unparalleled access to such areas by allowing versatile, precision mobility and forceful manipulation in rugged environments that require climbing to examine and sample.
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