Nabil SimaanView profile
Professor
Nabil Simaan is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Vanderbilt University with secondary appointments in Computer Science and Otolaryngology . He leads the Advanced Robotics and Mechanism Applications (ARMA) laboratory, focusing on surgical robotics, continuum robots, and intelligent human-robot interaction. Education : Ph.D., M.Sci., and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology . Postdoctoral Research at Johns Hopkins University NSF ERC-CISST (2003-2004). Research Interests : Medical robotics for minimally invasive procedures Kinematic modeling and optimization of parallel/continuum robots Telemanipulation and semi-autonomous control Flexible mechanisms and actuation redundancy Article Trends : His recent work emphasizes subretinal surgical robots, continuum manipulators for transurethral operations, and multi-scale dexterity through mathematical synthesis using screw theory and algebraic geometry. Scientific Awards : NSF Career Award (2009) for intelligent surgical robots IEEE Senior Member (2013) for contributions to robotics Advising & Grants : Advises PhD/MSc students in robotics and mechanism design. NIH-funded work on OCT-guided retinal surgery robots. NSF grants for continuum robot kinematics and redundancy control. Labs & Collaborations : Leads the ARMA Lab , bridging engineering and clinical medicine. Collaborates with Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering (VISE) and industry partners like AURIS Surgical Robotics. Translational focus through Titan Medical Inc. partnerships.







