Kyran · Mechanical Design · Robotic Structures · Systems Integration
I explore mechanical structures, complex assemblies and the connections between modules, using modelling, 3D printing and prototypes to make ideas tangible and open to improvement.
Consensus is my personal engineering archive. Twelve compartments connect projects, working methods, build records and personal interests. Follow the transit car or open a project directly to explore its context, my role, design process and current results.
Go to projects ↓How can sensors, a display, computing boards and wiring share a compact head while remaining practical to make and assemble?
How can feeding, visual recognition, hopper sorting and collection operate as one prototype?
How can watering, lighting and interaction form an expandable plant-care prototype?
How can a complex concept vessel become a work that others can understand, edit, hand over and explore?
How can vessel interaction, mechanism motion and project content work together while keeping evidence easy to reach?
The organisation of a mechanical system becomes a way to know its creator. Cabins, interfaces and routes connect projects, making and personal interests.
Modules, interfaces, assembly, transport and maintenance organise the site. Its visual language helps explain the work.
Compartments hold themes, the transit car connects them and the index provides direct access.
Module exchange explains modularity; archive retrieval introduces version history. Motion offers a route into the content.
Personal, team and AI contributions are identified through specific responsibilities and outputs.
Comparisons, problems, revisions and checks make the reasoning behind a decision visible.
Design, modelling, handoff and web integration become a documented project with reusable methods.
I am Zhang Hanqi. I enjoy mechanical structures and making ideas tangible. This site brings together my design projects, hands-on work and interests beyond engineering. Think of Consensus as a portfolio you can walk through.
Twelve compartments hold different parts of that story: product structures, the journey from CAD to a physical build, AI collaboration, travel and personal creations. Moving through the ship reveals the connections between them.
For the work itself, start at C04: the robot head, waste-sorting robot and plant-care system. C05 to C09 take a closer look at design, fabrication, measurement and collaboration.
For the person behind the work, C02 introduces my direction, C10 shares moments from a journey, and C11 tells the story of this ship. Start wherever your curiosity takes you.
What to discover: Meet me, then choose a project to explore.
Enter atlas (existing access permissions apply) ↗All projects and methods ↗What interests me most is turning an idea into something that can be held, assembled and used. Mechanical design gives it form; making and assembly keep providing new feedback.
SolidWorks modelling, complex assemblies, 3D printing and hands-on fabrication are my strongest practical foundations. I start with the overall arrangement, then work through supports, interfaces, fixings and removal order.
The robot head, waste-sorting robot and plant-care system introduced different scales of prototyping, from compact device layouts to frames, enclosures and plumbing. Each asks me to consider the model in its real context.
I am also learning programming, electronics, embedded communication and simulation through projects. For unfamiliar problems, I draw on references, AI and colleagues, then check the result on the physical build.
What to discover: Start with structure and bring the design into the physical world.
How can sensors, a display, computing boards and wiring share a compact head while remaining practical to make and assemble?
How can feeding, visual recognition, hopper sorting and collection operate as one prototype?
How can watering, lighting and interaction form an expandable plant-care prototype?
On Consensus, AI assists with scripted modelling and web implementation. I set the design direction, review results and request revisions. My central question is why a part exists and how it works with its neighbours.
The C04 loading mechanism once had a clear problem: the shell transport frame obstructed the loading tray. Each looked mechanical on its own, but the combined movement could not connect them.
I made the feedback specific: move the frame above, hand the shell to the tray, then define its path into the turret. The revision now had a location and an ordered sequence.
That is how I work with AI: inspect the result, locate the problem, explain the change and review the next version.
What to discover: Use generation tools in service of clear design decisions.
How can a complex concept vessel become a work that others can understand, edit, hand over and explore?
This is the entry point to my work. The first three projects involve real devices and physical prototypes: a robot head, a waste-sorting robot and a plant-care system.
Consensus and this interactive website grew from my interest in spacecraft, complex mechanisms and spatial storytelling. Choose a project to explore its problem and making process.
What to discover: Choose a project and follow how it took shape.
How can sensors, a display, computing boards and wiring share a compact head while remaining practical to make and assemble?
How can feeding, visual recognition, hopper sorting and collection operate as one prototype?
How can watering, lighting and interaction form an expandable plant-care prototype?
How can a complex concept vessel become a work that others can understand, edit, hand over and explore?
How can vessel interaction, mechanism motion and project content work together while keeping evidence easy to reach?
The robot head packs cameras, a display, microphones, computing and power boards, and wiring into a small volume. Device dimensions and mounting relationships guide supports, the internal frame and the enclosure, with each part available for revision.
I consider not only whether a device fits, but how its fasteners are reached, where tools enter and what comes off first. The mainboard, power boards on both sides and expansion board also shape the cable routes and usable space.
Following an audio colleague’s test feedback, I moved the microphone array from the top to below the main structure, added isolation and left its surroundings open. Placement responds to operation as well as appearance.
After changes to the power arrangement, roughly five or six neck cables became one Ethernet cable and two power cables. A smaller expansion board freed further space. I revised supports and assembly relationships around these changes.
What to discover: Let device layout, fixing and assembly order shape the structure together.
How can sensors, a display, computing boards and wiring share a compact head while remaining practical to make and assemble?
The waste-sorting robot needs to see an object before it can sort it. While trying YOLOv10 and YOLOv11, the team found that lighting changes strongly affected recognition, with sunlight changing the camera’s view.
I added a black acrylic cover around the recognition area to block external light, leaving illumination to the internal lamp. Lighting became a condition I could address through the structure.
The hopper was initially intended to be white, but many waste objects were similar in colour and blended into the background. I painted it purple to give the camera a more distinct background.
Both changes came from debugging. An enclosure and its surface colour affect not just appearance, but how a neighbouring system operates.
What to discover: Translate recognition problems into enclosure and surface revisions.
How can feeding, visual recognition, hopper sorting and collection operate as one prototype?
After mechanical assembly, the devices need to connect and operate together. I carried out most of the head wiring, using AI suggestions during debugging and checking them against what happened on the build.
During one supply check, I put an ammeter in series and measured voltage with a multimeter. The head motors were moving while the sensors operated together.
This connected the device list in CAD to the demands of operating hardware. The approximate readings below refer to that combined motor-and-sensor operating state.
Wiring and reading instruments are part of my hands-on introduction to system debugging. I work from specific questions: which circuit is operating, which connection needs checking and what to observe next.
What to discover: Wire the build, then learn from its operation and measurements.
How can sensors, a display, computing boards and wiring share a compact head while remaining practical to make and assemble?
For the plant-care system, I wanted watering direction to adjust instead of always reaching one fixed point. I used two rotatable rings to adjust its direction, with modelled and 3D-printed moving parts, a base and connectors.
The adjustable mechanism covers a region of roughly 60°. Its parts secure the tube while leaving room for movement. Printing and assembly turn that arrangement into something I can operate.
Water and electronics also need a structural relationship. The aquarium and planter can connect, so I isolated the planter electronics in a separate lower compartment, apart from planting and water above.
From tube supports to the electronics compartment, these details follow real use. I translate each requirement into parts, mounting positions and assembly order.
What to discover: Translate use into parts that can be printed and assembled.
How can watering, lighting and interaction form an expandable plant-care prototype?
After making one planter, I wanted it to connect with more modules. The plant-care system therefore needed clear external interfaces as well as an internal assembly.
I designed XT30 external connections so multiple planter modules can connect in parallel. Providing the connection points in the design means expansion does not require reopening the electronics compartment to rework its wiring each time.
Interfaces bring independent modules together. The planter, lower electronics compartment and external connection each have a place, and another module can use the same connection approach.
This makes me think about how products become systems: an individual module needs to work, while the connections between modules need to be understandable, usable and maintainable.
What to discover: Provide interfaces so independent modules can form a system.
How can watering, lighting and interaction form an expandable plant-care prototype?
I spent about twenty days driving through Tibet with classmates. I remember the scale of the landscapes, and some small things we came across by chance.
After half a day off-road, we arrived at the almost deserted Zongcuo Lake, beside a mountain pass. Walking along the shore, I noticed a heart-shaped pool. The other moments remain in the photographs.
What to discover: About twenty days driving through Tibet with classmates
All projects and methods ↗I have long enjoyed spacecraft and interstellar travel, and have played EVE for years. Consensus began with a simple wish: to design a ship of my own.
That interest goes back to primary school, when I made a rocket model and won a national first prize. Years of EVE kept spacecraft and space travel part of my life.
At first, I simply wanted to design according to my own tastes. As I worked, I realised that its form, structure and choices already expressed something about me. That was where the portfolio idea began.
I placed projects, experiences and interests in different compartments. The ship became a personal work people could walk into, discovering what I make, what I enjoy and how I decide.
I lead the direction, content and design choices, with AI assisting scripted modelling and web implementation. The ship continues to grow with my ideas.
What to discover: Consensus: a ship of my own
How can a complex concept vessel become a work that others can understand, edit, hand over and explore?
How can vessel interaction, mechanism motion and project content work together while keeping evidence easy to reach?
Next, I want to explain my ideas more clearly and make an original model or mechanism for my graduation project.
Mechanical design, part modelling, 3D printing and assembly are the foundations I want to develop into more complete products.
Communication is a particular focus: helping others understand the problem, the reasons behind a design and the feedback I need. I want to practise that throughout my next projects.
An original work would let me follow my own idea through design, making, testing and revision. My technical learning will follow the needs of that work.
What to discover: Next: explain the design, make the work
How can sensors, a display, computing boards and wiring share a compact head while remaining practical to make and assemble?