DASH Robot: Minimalistic Design and Optimal Aerial-Terrestrial Locomotion via Contact-Implicit Control

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2607.18527v1
• Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2026 21:39:25 GMT
• Title: DASH Robot: Minimalistic Design and Optimal Aerial-Terrestrial Locomotion via Contact-Implicit Control
• Abstract summary: We present a novel and minimalistic design of an aerial-terrestrial robot DASH: Ducted Aerial Spring Hopper.<n>The goal is to enable both aerial and ground locomotion capabilities on a unified mobile robot.<n>We successfully validated the design and control of DASH through a range of tasks.
• Score: 3.07869141026886
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: We present a novel and minimalistic design of an aerial-terrestrial robot DASH: Ducted Aerial Spring Hopper. The goal is to enable both aerial and ground locomotion capabilities on a unified mobile robot that is mechanically-minimalistic, locomotion-versatile, and energy-efficient. We propose an organic integration of ducted fan co-axial body with a springy leg at the bottom for realization. The ducted fan module provides thrust-vectoring as the main actuation for agile flying; when it is combined with the light-weight spring leg, the robot realizes highly efficient ground hopping with energy circulation. Moreover, to realize optimal locomotion with two modes, we employ a contact-implicit model predictive controller to automatically choose locomotion modes and actuation. We successfully validated the design and control of DASH through a range of tasks, including periodic hopping, aerial flight, and mode-free locomotion with autonomous mode transitions during obstacle traversal.

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