Zirui Fan is a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at National University of Singapore. As a member of the OriSoft Lab, led by Dr Hongying Zhang, his research centers on the development of shape-changing robots.

Research Interests

  • Engineering Origami
  • Robotic Mechanisms and Structures
  • Mechatronic Systems

Education

  • National University of Singapore
  • National University of Singapore
  • Beijing University of Technology

Projects

  • Designed a compact folding structure of a shape-changing robot that has a deploy-to-stow ratio of 3 in the width dimension based on origami principles
  • Developed a kinematic model for the folding structure to simulate the shape-changing process and provide guidance for actuation
  • Designed a hinge mechanism that is easy to actuate and collision-free for complex thick-panel folding

Publications

  • H. Zhang, Z. Wang, and Z. Fan, "Standardizing structure design of soft robots through origami", Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering, Feb. 2025. doi: 10.1038/s44287-025-00152-y
  • Z. Fan, and H. Zhang, "OSCaR: An Origami-Inspired Shape-Changing Robot for Ground Coverage Tasks," 2024 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Yokohama, Japan, 2024, pp. 2491-2497. doi: 10.1109/ICRA57147.2024.10610212

People

Supervisor: Hongying Zhang
Collaborators: Hongying Zhang , Zheng Wang