Zhao Ma

Last Name

Ma

First Name

Zhao

ORCID

0000-0002-3624-6876

Organisational unit

09694 - Galí-Izard, Teresa / Galí-Izard, Teresa

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Publications 1 - 7 of 7

BeingAliveLanguage: Visualizing soil information from a design perspective to enhance multidisciplinary communication
Ma, Zhao; Gali-Izard, Teresa (2023)
Ecological Informatics
Soil forms the foundation for biotic and abiotic activities that shape landscapes over time. Effective communication and understanding of soil profiles, contents, and interactions with other systems such as vegetation and climate are crucial for multidisciplinary research and projects involving soil. A robust, comprehensible, and extendable visualization system is required to enhance communication across diverse disciplines, including landscape architecture, agronomy, and ecology. This paper introduces the BeingAliveLanguage, an innovative, extensible visualization system for soil-centric information within a multidisciplinary communication framework. The system employs a fractal-based visual language to effectively convey vital soil information to professionals in various fields engaged in architecture, landscape design, and urban planning projects. The corresponding software, developed as a plugin for the Rhino-Grasshopper CAD environment, allows users to automatically generate easily understandable soil-centered diagrams using a node-based programming language. Designed to enhance communication in landscape, geoscience, and agriculture-related fields, the system provides critical information to support the design and decision-making process. We showcase the system’s efficacy through two extensions and by utilizing the tool in multiple real-world projects.
KinetiX - designing auxetic-inspired deformable material structures
Ou, Jifei; Ma, Zhao; Dai, Sen; et al. (2018)
Computers & Graphics
Computational Re-Forming
Ma, Zhao (2021)
While the utilization of robot arms has increased since the construction industry began to deploy robotic technologies for digital fabrication processes, a pipeline is missing for fabrication-aware design as the abstraction of complex, contradictory constraints for the designer is not evident. %the non-standard characteristics of building components still pose major challenges that require flexible and adaptable robotic fabrication strategies. Additional geometric complexity, material properties, etc. also contribute to the overall difficulties for fabricating the designated piece successfully without any collisions or structural failure. Through the development of two projects focusing on different aspects of robotic fabrication, this dissertation identifies various limitations related to the overall design-to-fabrication process and categorizes them into different types of constraints. It is observed that many of the constraints occurred within one fabrication task are usually intertwined and cannot be decoupled, which requires integrated computational strategies to resolve. By adopting available methods in the computer graphics field that address geometry and material, this dissertation presents a series of optimization-based strategies in the context of two specific research projects, targeting geometry processing and path planning for robotic fabrication. Its aim is to demonstrate the potential of using optimization methods to obtain achievable robotic fabrication solutions under sophisticated requirements. Focusing on geometry processing and path planning, respectively, this dissertation employs optimization approaches to assist with design aims, and develops a conceptual framework for solving fabrication-aware robotic fabrication tasks. The formulation of the optimization problems in this dissertation empowers the design processes to be fabrication-aware so as to be compatible with the selected fabrication technology. It provides a more mathematical and holistic perspective for looking at robotic fabrication technologies in the architectural domain.
Repurposing shared bike frames into rural infrastructure
Qian, Cheng; Ma, Zhao (2025)
Journal of Environmental Management
While bike-sharing systems have generated significant economic benefits, they have also faced challenges regarding the disposal and recycling of discarded bicycle frames. A potential solution to reuse these difficult-to-recycle frames for essential public service facilities in rural areas has not yet been thoroughly explored. Using shape grammar as a design method, this study examines two typical bicycle frame designs with different geometric properties and successfully repurpose the frames into various public service facilities, such as public tables and chairs, railings, installations, and public restrooms. The research highlights the significant potential for the reuse of discarded bicycle frames by reducing resource waste and providing essential infrastructure for underdeveloped rural areas to narrow the urban-rural disparity. The innovative approach presented in this study offers new directions for future research and practical applications in waste recycling.
Designing Robotically‐Constructed Metal Frame Structures
Ma, Zhao; Walzer, Alexander N.; Schumacher, Christian; et al. (2020)
Computer Graphics Forum
We present a computational technique that aids with the design of structurally-sound metal frames, tailored for robotic fabrication using an existing process that integrate automated bar bending, welding, and cutting. Aligning frames with structurally favourable orientations, and decomposing models into fabricable units, we make the fabrication process scale-invariant, and frames globally align in an aesthetically-pleasing and structurally-informed manner. Relying on the standard analysis of frames, we then co-optimize the shape and topology of bars at the local unit level. At this level, we minimize combinations of functional and aesthetic objectives under strict fabrication constraints that model the assembly of discrete sets of bent bars. We demonstrate the capabilities of our global-to-local approach on four robotically-constructed examples.
Stylized robotic clay sculpting
Ma, Zhao; Duenser, Simon; Schumacher, Christian; et al. (2021)
Computers & Graphics
This paper presents an interactive design system that allows the user to create and fabricate stylized sculptures in water-based clay, using a standard 6-axis robot arm. This system facilitates the materialization of abstract design intentions into clay, through the algorithmic formulation of sculpting styles, the optimal path planning of the sculpting toolpaths, and a subtractive robotic fabrication process using customized tools. Unlike other precision-driven fabrication technologies, the authors embrace artistic uncertainty by conducting manual and robotic sculpting experiments and incorporating prominent parameters that affect the fabrication quality. The versatility of the described approach is demonstrated by designing a series of sculpting styles over a wide range of 3D models and robotically fabricating them in clay. Additionally, the paper explores various strategies for designing stylized robotic sculpting patterns by generating toolpaths informed by different techniques.
RobotSculptor: Artist-Directed Robotic Sculpting of Clay
Ma, Zhao; Duenser, Simon; Schumacher, Christian; et al. (2020)
SCF '20: Symposium on Computational Fabrication
We present an interactive design system that allows users to create sculpting styles and fabricate clay models using a standard 6-axis robot arm. Given a general mesh as input, the user iteratively selects sub-areas of the mesh through decomposition and embeds the design expression into an initial set of toolpaths by modifying key parameters that affect the visual appearance of the sculpted surface finish. These parameters were identified and extracted through a series of design experiments, using a customized loop tool to cut the water-based clay material. The initialized toolpaths are fed into the optimization component of our system afterwards for optimal path planning, aiming to find the robotic sculpting motions that match the target surface, maintaining the design expression, and resolving collisions and reachability issues. We demonstrate the versatility of our approach by designing and fabricating different sculpting styles over a wide range of clay models.

Publications 1 - 7 of 7

Zhao Ma

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