Xiru Fan

Papers

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About

Xiru Fan is a rising leader in the field of soft robotics and advanced manufacturing, with a core focus on grayscale digital light processing (DLP) 3D printing and voxel-level material design. Their most cited work, "Voxel Design of Grayscale DLP 3D‐Printed Soft Robots" (2024, 29 citations), introduces a groundbreaking method for programming material properties by precisely tuning grayscale values during printing. This approach overcomes the longstanding challenge of designing complex, multi-material structures without the need for multiple print heads or post-processing. By enabling continuous stiffness variation within a single print, Fan’s research empowers the creation of soft robots with seamless transitions between rigid and flexible regions, dramatically improving performance and durability. This work has quickly gained traction, cited for its practical impact on simplifying fabrication while expanding design freedom. Fan’s contributions are pivotal for students and researchers seeking to bridge the gap between additive manufacturing and functional soft robotics, offering a scalable, accessible toolkit for next-generation adaptive machines.