Speaker: Dr. Guoxin Fang
Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering
Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Date: 6 August 2025 (Wednesday)
Time: 11.00am to 12.00 noon
Venue: Blk E7, Seminar Room E7-03-07 – Seminar Room 2
Abstract
Soft robots exhibit great adaptability to their surroundings and ensure safe human interaction, broadening robotic applications such as fragile object manipulation and exploration of unstructured environments. The importance of computational tools is well-recognized in soft robotics research, spanning from rapid modeling and kinematics computation to automated design. However, existing methods that assume rigidity in structure are insufficient for robots with soft bodies. This gap underscores the need for pioneering algorithms tailored for soft robots. In this seminar, I will share insights from my research dedicated to overcoming the challenges of design and control soft robots from a geometry-oriented perspective. Specifically, this talk will cover topics including: (1) The development of a fast and general numerical simulator for soft robot applications; (2) Learning-based real-time kinematics control for soft robots with sim-to-real transfer; (3) Sensor-based proprioception and closed-loop control for soft manipulators; (4) Data-Driven design of a deformable soft robot mannequin for the garment industry application.
Speaker
Dr. Guoxin Fang is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He received his Ph.D. degree in Design Engineering from Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, in 2022. He also holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Beijing Institute of Technology, which he obtained in 2016. Prior to joining CUHK, he worked as a Postdoctoral research associate in digital manufacturing at the University of Manchester, UK. Dr. Fang’s research focuses on developing computational techniques to advance manufacturing and robotic systems. He has published over 30 research works in the fields of digital manufacturing, computational design, and robotics. Dr. Fang’s research has been recognized with several awards, including the Best Paper Award at the 2022 SIGGRAPH Asia Conference and the Best Paper Award at the ASME IDETC-CIE 2023 conference. He is a member of ASME, IEEE, ACM (SIGGRAPH), and serves as a committee member of the Symposium on Solid & Physical Modeling (SPM) and the ASME Computers and Information in Engineering (CIE) Division.
Organised by
