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Mechanical & Materials Engineering


Carl A. Nelson
Associate Professor

Carl Nelson

Contact:

Carl Nelson

Education

  • Ph.D., 2005 Purdue University
  • M.S., 2002 Purdue University
  • B.S., 2000 University of Oklahoma

Recently Published In

  • ASME Journal of Mechanical Design; ASME Journal of Medical Devices

In the news:

Courses Taught

  • Dynamic Systems Modeling and Control (MECH 350);
  • Biomedical Device Design (MECH 498/898);
  • Mechanical Engineering Design I (MECH 446).

Lab

  • Applied Mechanisms and Design Lab

Projects
Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • Ph.D., 2005 Purdue University
  • M.S., 2002 Purdue University
  • B.S., 2000 University of Oklahoma
Dr. Nelson joined the faculty of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2005. Prior to coming to UNL, he attended Purdue University, where he received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and completed his MSME and PhD degrees. Dr. Nelson is a member of the ASME, and his teaching experience includes courses in flight science at Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth and algebra at Ivy Tech State College of Indiana. Since coming to UNL, Dr. Nelson has taught Dynamic Systems Modeling and Control (MECH 350), Biomedical Device Design (MECH 498/898), and Mechanical Engineering Design I (MECH 446).

Research Interests

Dr. Nelson's research interests lie broadly in the areas of robotics and mechanical systems design and analysis, including specific thrusts in optimal design, design of modular mechanical systems, and incorporation of graph-theoretic techniques in mechanical systems design. He is specifically interested in adapting these concepts for surgical and biomedical applications. For more information, visit http://robots.unl.edu/Nelson/www/index.htm

Selected Publications

  • Nelson, C. A., and Cipra, R. J., "Simplified Kinematic Analysis of Bevel Epicyclic Gear Trains with Application to Power Flow and Efficiency Analyses," ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, Vol. 127, No. 2, March 2005, pp. 278-286.
  • Miller, D. J., Nelson, C. A., Oleynikov, D., and Jones, D. D., “Pre-Operative Ordering of Minimally Invasive Surgical Tools: A Fuzzy Inference System Approach,” Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, Vol. 43, No. 1, May 2008, pp. 35-45.
  • Miller, D. J. and Nelson, C. A., “Novel Mechanical Actuation of a Modular Laparoscopic Surgical Tool,” ASME Journal of Medical Devices, Vol. 2, No. 3, September 2008, 8 pp.
  • Zhang, X. and Nelson, C. A., “Kinematic Analysis and Optimization of a Novel Robot for Surgical Tool Manipulation,” ASME Journal of Medical Devices, Vol. 2, No. 2, June 2008, 8 pp.
  • Miller, D. J., Luxon, E., and Nelson, C. A., “Intelligent Modular Tool for Emergency Surgical Treatment During Payload-Critical Missions,” Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences, Vol. 31 (August 2008), pp. 69-76.
  • Ryland, K., Nelson, C. A., and Hejkal, T., “An Infant Surgical Table for Laser Photocoagulation: Design and Development,” ASME Journal of Medical Devices, Vol. 2, No. 3, September 2008, 8 pp.
  • Miller, D. J., Nelson, C. A., and Oleynikov, D., “Shortened OR Time and Decreased Patient Risk Through Use of a Modular Surgical Instrument with Artificial Intelligence,” Surgical Endoscopy, Vol. 23, No. 5, 2009, pp. 1099-1105.
  • Nelson, C. A., Zhang, X., Shah, B. C., Goede, M. R., Oleynikov, D., “Multipurpose Surgical Robot as a Laparoscope Assistant,” Surgical Endoscopy, Vol. 24, No. 7 (July 2010), pp. 1528-1532.
  • Nelson, C. A., Zhang, X., Buettner, S., Oleynikov, D., “Tool Guidance using a Compact Robotic Assistant,” Journal of Robotic Surgery, Vol. 3, No. 3, 2009, pp. 171-173.
  • Ryland, K., Nelson, C. A., Hejkal, T., “An Infant Surgical Table for Laser Photocoagulation: Ergonomic Improvement Analysis,” Journal of Medical Engineering and Technology, Vol. 34, No. 2, 2010, pp. 124-133.
  • Miller, D. J., Nelson, C. A., Cannon, M. B., Cannon, K., “Comparison of Fuzzy Clustering Methods and Their Applications to Geophysics Data,” Applied Computational Intelligence and Soft Computing, Vol. 2009, Article ID 876361, 16 pages, doi:10.1155/2009/876361.
  • Lehman, A. C., Tiwari, M. M., Shah, B. C., Farritor, S. M., Nelson, C. A., Oleynikov, D., “Recent Advances in the CoBRASurge Robotic Manipulator and Dexterous Miniature In Vivo Robotics for Minimally Invasive Surgery,” Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, Part C, Proc. IMechE, Vol. 224, No. 7, 2010, pp. 1487-1494.
  • Zhang, X., and Nelson, C. A., “On the Dynamic Modeling of a Bevel-Geared Surgical Robotic Mechanism,” ASME Journal of Medical Devices, Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2010, 11 pp.
  • Zhang, X., and Nelson, C. A., “Multiple-Criteria Kinematic Optimization for the Design of Spherical Serial Mechanisms using Genetic Algorithms,” ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, in press.