DARoS Lab

Dynamic and Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARoS) Laboratory · Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI, KAIST

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We build robotic systems for humans

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The Dynamic and Autonomous Robotic Systems (DARoS) Laboratory develops robotic systems for humans by advancing the speed, intelligence, and robustness of robots. Our research spans mechanism design, optimization-based control, reinforcement learning, robot perception, and human–robot interaction — all critical to enabling robots to function in the real world. Recent projects include a humanoid robot with actuated toes (PresToe), a single-legged hopping robot (StaccaToe), and a guide-dog robot for blind and low-vision navigation. More recently, we have been extending our scope to manipulation and robotic hand design.

The lab launches at KAIST’s Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI in February 2027, continuing work previously carried out at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (DARoS Lab @ UMass Amherst).

Prospective students: we are recruiting graduate students and interns. If you want to build humanoid and quadruped robots, develop assistive systems for people with disabilities, or help establish a new definition of physical intelligence, please submit an application through our Google form.

news

Feb 15, 2027 The DARoS Lab opens at KAIST, joining the Kim Jaechul Graduate School of AI. We are recruiting graduate students and interns — see Join Us. :tada:
Jul 30, 2026 NSF CAREER Award: leveraging toes for agile humanoid locomotion
May 20, 2026 Daniel Marew defends the lab's first PhD
Mar 05, 2026 GuideNav wins a Systems Paper Honorable Mention at HRI 2026
Oct 01, 2025 New NSF award to support research on modeling human agile locomotion.

selected publications

  1. Highly Dynamic Quadruped Locomotion via Whole-Body Impulse Control and Model Predictive Control
    Donghyun Kim, Jared Di Carlo, Benjamin Katz, and 2 more authors
    arXiv preprint arXiv:1909.06586, 2019
  2. The MIT Humanoid Robot: Design, Motion Planning, and Control for Acrobatic Behaviors
    Matthew Chignoli, Donghyun Kim, Elijah Stanger-Jones, and 1 more author
    In IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), 2021
  3. Dynamic Locomotion for Passive-Ankle Biped Robots and Humanoids Using Whole-Body Locomotion Control
    Donghyun Kim, Steven Jens Jorgensen, Jaemin Lee, and 3 more authors
    The International Journal of Robotics Research, 2020
  4. Vision Aided Dynamic Exploration of Unstructured Terrain with a Small-Scale Quadruped Robot
    Donghyun Kim, Daniel Carballo, Jared Di Carlo, and 4 more authors
    In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2020
  5. Computationally-Robust and Efficient Prioritized Whole-Body Controller with Contact Constraints
    Donghyun Kim, Jaemin Lee, Junhyeok Ahn, and 3 more authors
    In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2018
  6. System Configuration and Navigation of a Guide Dog Robot: Toward Animal Guide Dog-Level Guiding Work
    Hochul Hwang, Tim Xia, Ibrahima Keita, and 4 more authors
    In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2023
  7. Event Camera-Based Visual Odometry for Dynamic Motion Tracking of a Legged Robot Using Adaptive Time Surface
    Shifan Zhu, Zixin Tang, Mingcheng Yang, and 2 more authors
    In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2023
  8. CEAR: Comprehensive Event Camera Dataset for Rapid Perception of Agile Quadruped Robots
    Shifan Zhu, Zhipeng Xiong, and Donghyun Kim
    IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2024
  9. Learning Generic and Dynamic Locomotion of Humanoids Across Discrete Terrains
    Shangqun Yu, Nisal Perera, Daniel Marew, and 1 more author
    In IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), 2024
  10. StaccaToe: A Single-Leg Robot That Mimics the Human Leg and Toe
    Nisal Perera, Shangqun Yu, Daniel Marew, and 5 more authors
    In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2024
  11. Integration of Riemannian Motion Policy with Whole-Body Control for Collision-Free Legged Locomotion
    Daniel Marew, Misha Lvovsky, Shangqun Yu, and 2 more authors
    In IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), 2023
  12. GuideNav: User-Informed Development of a Vision-Only Robotic Navigation Assistant for Blind Travelers
    Hochul Hwang, Soowan Yang, Jahir Sadik Monon, and 4 more authors
    In ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), 2026