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Mark Colton

Teaching Professor
Mechanical Engineering

350I EB
Provo, UT 84602

Biography

Office/Class Hours

Winter 2024
MWF: 8-10 AM - Capstone
MWF: 12-1 PM - ME 534
MWF: 2-3 PM - CE 204
MWF: 3-4 PM - Office Hours
TTh: 8-9 AM - Capstone
TTh: 9-10:30 AM - Office Hours
T: 12:30-2 PM - Office hours
W: 4-5:30 PM Faculty Meeting
Th: 11-12PM - ME 497R

Research

Mechatronic Systems, Dynamic Systems, Robotics, Haptic Interfaces

Biography
Publications
Courses

EDUCATION
PhD, University of Utah, 2006MS, University of Utah, 2001BS, University of Utah, 1997
EXPERIENCE
2012 to present, Associate Professor, Brigham Young University
2012 to Present, Associate Professor, Brigham Young University
2006 to 2012, Assistant Professor, Brigham Young University
2005 to 2006, Visiting Instructor, Brigham Young University
2001 to 2006 Research Assistant, Virtual Environments and Teleoperation (VETO) Laboratory, University of Utah
1999 to 2005 Instructor, University of Utah
1999 to 2001 Research Staff, Center for Engineering Design, University of Utah
1997 to 1999 Research Assistant, Center for Engineering Design, University of Utah
1997 Mechanical Engineer, Sarcos, Inc.
1994-1997 Student Engineer, Sarcos, Inc.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Member ASME
Member IEEE
Member ASEE

S.J. McDonald, M.B. Colton, C.K. Alder, and M.A. Goodrich, ""Haptic Shape-Based Management of Robot Teams in Cordon and Patrol,"" ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, Vienna, Austria, 6-9 March 2017.

R. Philbrick and M. Colton, ""Effects of Haptic and 3D Audio Feedback on Operator Performance and Workload for Quadrotor UAVs in Indoor Environments,"" Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics, Vol. 26, No. 5, 2014, pp. 580-591.

R.B. George, M.B. Colton, C.A. Mattson, and S.L. Thomson, ""A Differentially Driven Flapping Wing Mechanism for Force Analysis and Trajectory Optimization,"" Int. Journal of Micro Air Vehicles, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2012, pp. 31-49.

M.A. Goodrich, M.B. Colton, B. Brinton, M. Fujiki, J.A. Atherton, D. Ricks, M.H. Maxfield, A. Acerson, ""Incorporating a Robot into an Autism Therapy Team,"" IEEE Intelligent Systems, Vol. 27, No. 2, 2012, pp. 52-59.

M.B. Colton, L. Sun, D.C. Carlson, and R.W. Beard, “Multi-vehicle Dynamics and Control for Aerial Recovery of Micro Air Vehicles,"" Int. Journal of Vehicle Autonomous Systems, Vol. 9, Nos. 1/2, 2011, pp. 78-107.

P. Willemsen, M.B. Colton, S.H. Creem-Regher, and W.B. Thompson, “The Effects of Head-Mounted Display Mechanical Properties and Field-of-View on Distance Judgments in Virtual Environments,” ACM Trans. on Applied perception, Vol. 6, No. 2, February 2009, pp. 8:1-8:14.

P. Willemsen, S.H. Creem-Regehr, M.B. Colton, and W.B. Thompson, “The Effect of HMD Mass and Inertia on Visually Directed Walking in Virtual Environments,” Journal of Vision, Vol. 5, p. 309, 2005.

P. Willemsen, M.B. Colton, S.H. Creem-Regehr, and W.B. Thompson, “Examining Distance Compression in Virtual Environments: Hi-tech versus No-tech Displays,” Journal of Vision, Vol. 4, No. 8, p. 20, 2004.

C.K. Alder, S.J. McDonald, M.B. Colton, and M.A. Goodrich, ""Toward Haptic-Based Management of Small Swarms in Cordon and Patrol,"" IEEE Swarm/Human Blended Intelligence Workshop, Cleveland, Ohio, 28-29 September, 2015.

J.C. Hawks, M.B. Colton, and L.L. Howell, ""A Variable-Stiffness Straight-Line Compliant Mechanism,"" Proc. ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE), Boston, Massachusetts, 2-5 August, 2015.

E.G. Merriam, M.B. Colton, S. Magleby, and L.L. Howell, “The design of a fully compliant statically balanced mechanism,” Proc. ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE), Portland, Oregon, 4-7 August, 2013.

M.L. Duffield, C.A. Mattson, and M.B. Colton, “Towards Variable Fidelity Optimization with Hardware in the Loop for Flapping Flight,” AIAA/ISSMO Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference (MAO12), Indianapolis, Indiana, 17-19 September, 2012.

L.C. Leishman and M.B. Colton, ""A Pseudo-Rigid-Body Model Approach for the Design of Compliant Mechanism Springs for Prescribed Force-Deflections,"" ASME Design Engineering Technical Conference, Washington, D.C., 28-31 August, 2011.

M.A. Owen, J.W. Nicols, and M.B. Colton, ""Cooperative Aerial Tracking and Rendezvous Along Time-Optimal 3-Dimensional Curves,"" AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference (GNC11), Portland, Oregon, 8-11 August, 2011.

M.A. Goodrich, M.B. Colton, B. Brinton, and M. Fujiki, “A Case for Low-Dose Robotics in Autism Therapy,” 6th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI11), Lausanne, Switzerland, 6-9 March, 2011.

D.J. Ricks, M.B. Colton, and M.A. Goodrich, “Design and Evaluation of a Clinical Upper-Body Humanoid Robot for Autism Therapy,” Proc. International Conference on Applied Bionics and Biomechanics (ICABB10), Venice, Italy, 14-16 October, 2010.

N. Giullian, D. Ricks, A. Atherton, M. Colton, M. Goodrich, and B. Brinton, ""Detailed Requirements for Robots in Autism Therapy,"" Proc. IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC10), Istanbul, Turkey, 10-13 October, 2010.

A.M. Brandt and M.B. Colton, ""Haptic Collision Avoidance for a Remotely Operated Quadrotor UAV in Indoor Environments,"" Proc. IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC10), Istanbul, Turkey, 10-13 October, 2010.

L. Sun, R.W. Beard and M.B. Colton, ""Motion Planning and Control for Mothership-cable-drogue Systems in Aerial Recovery of Micro Air Vehicles,"" Proc. American Control Conference (ACC10), Baltimore, Maryland, 30 June-2 July, 2010.

L.C. Leishman, D.J. Ricks, and M.B. Colton, ""Design and Evaluation of Statically Balanced Compliant Mechanisms for Haptic Interfaces,"" Proc. ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference (DSC10), Cambridge, Massachusetts, 13-15 September, 2010.

D.J. Ricks and M.B. Colton, ""Trends and Considerations in Robot-Assisted Autism Therapy,"" Proc. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA10), Anchorage, Alaska, 3-7 May, 2010.

D.C. Carlson and M.B. Colton, ""Out-of-Plane Orbit Estimation and Tracking for Aerial Recovery of Micro Air Vehicles,"" Proc. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA10), Anchorage, Alaska, 3-7 May, 2010.

L. Sun, R.W. Beard, M.B. Colton and T.W. McLain, “Dynamics and Control of Cable-Drogue System in Aerial Recovery of Micro Air Vehicles Based on Gauss’s Principle,” American Control Conference (ACC09), St. Louis, Missouri, 10-12 June, 2009, pp. 4729-4734.

M.B. Colton, D.J. Ricks, M.A. Goodrich, B. Dariush, K. Fujimura and M. Fujiki, ""Toward Therapist-in-the-Loop Assistive Robotics for Children with Autism and Specific Language Impairment,"" AISB New Frontiers in Human-Robot Interaction Symposium, Edinburgh, Scotland, 6-10 April, 2009.

M.A. Judd, T.L. Brown, and M.B. Colton, “Toward Automated Haptic Modeling Using Commercial Haptic Interfaces: Surface Normal Estimation and Static Model Identification,” WorldHaptics 2009: 3rd Joint EuroHaptics Conference and IEEE Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environments and Teleoperator Systems, Salt Lake City, Utah, 18-20 March, 2009, pp. 434-439.

P.A. Theodosis and M.B. Colton, “Data-Driven Haptic Modeling Using Polynomial Hypersurfaces,” WorldHaptics 2009: 3rd Joint EuroHaptics Conference and IEEE Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environments and Teleoperator Systems, Salt Lake City, Utah, 18-20 March, 2009, pp. 35-38.

S.L. Thomson, C.A. Mattson, M.B. Colton, S.P. Harston, D.C. Carlson, and M. Cutler, “Experiment-Based Optimization of Flapping Wing Kinematics,” Proc. 47th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Orlando, Florida, 5-8 Jan., 2009.

M.A. Judd and M.B. Colton, “Higher-Order Experimental Haptic Force Models of Mechanical Devices Using Moving Ridge Regression,” Proc. 1st Annual ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference (DSC08), Ann Arbor, Michigan, 20-22 October, 2008.

M.B. Colton and P.A. Theodosis, “Haptic Modeling for Virtual Design and Prototyping,” Proc. 2nd International Workshop on Virtual Manufacturing (VIRMAN08), Torino, Italy, 6-8 October, 2008.

A.M. Brandt and M.B. Colton, “Toys in the Classroom: LEGO MindStorms as an Educational Haptics Platform,” Proc. 16th IEEE Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environments and Teleoperator Systems, Reno, Nevada, 13-14 March, 2008, pp. 389-395.

M.B. Colton and J.M. Hollerbach, “Reality-Based Haptic Force Models of Buttons and Switches,” Proc. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA07), Rome, Italy, 10-14 April, 2007, pp. 497-502.

M.B. Colton and J.M. Hollerbach, “Haptic Models of an Automotive Turn-Signal Switch: Identification and Playback Results,” Proc. WorldHaptics 2007: 2nd Joint EuroHaptics Conference and IEEE Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environments and Teleoperator Systems, Tsukuba, Japan, 22-24 March, 2007, pp. 243-248.

M.B. Colton and J.M. Hollerbach, “Identification of Nonlinear Passive Devices for Haptic Simulations,” Proc. WorldHaptics 2005: 1st Joint EuroHaptics Conference and IEEE Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environments and Teleoperator Systems, Pisa, Italy, 18-20 March, 2005, pp. 363-368.

M.B. Colton and J.M. Hollerbach, “Automated Modeling of Nonlinear Mechanisms for Virtual Prototyping,” ASME International Design and Engineering Technical Conference (IDETC04), Proc. Biennial Mechanisms and Robotics Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah, 28 September-2 October, 2004.

P. Willemsen, M.B. Colton, S.H. Creem-Regehr, and W.B. Thompson, “The Effects of Head-Mounted Display Mechanics on Distance Judgements in Virtual Environments,” Proc. 1st ACM Symposium on Applied Perception in Graphics and Visualization (APGV04), Los Angeles, California, 7-8 August, 2004, pp. 35-48.

M.B. Colton and S.G. Meek, “An Experimental Neuroelectric Prosthetic Arm,” Proc. 2nd IFAC Conference on Mechatronic Systems, Berkeley, California, December 2002, pp. 336-341.

M.B. Colton, W. Decker, and J. Klewicki, “Inflectional Profile Boundary Layer Interaction with a Surface Mounted Circular Cylinder,” ASME International Mechanical Engineering Conference and Exposition (IMECE96), Proc. Fluid Engineering Division, Atlanta, Georgia, 1996, pp. 337-341.

M.B. Colton and T.W. McLain, ""Mechatronics at BYU: A New Course for Undergraduate Mechanical Engineers,"" ASEE Rocky Mountain Section Conference, Cedar City, Utah, 30 September-1 October, 2016.

B. Brinton, M. Fujiki, T. Whitmer, M. Goodrich, and M. Colton, ""Incorporating a Robot in Intervention with Children with ASD: The Effect on Tantrum Behaviors,"" Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Orlando, Florida, November, 2014.

B. Brinton, M. Colton, M. Fujiki, M. Goodrich, L. Robinson, S. Richie, and K. Lowe, ""Using a Humanoid Robot to Facilitate Social Interaction in Children with ASD ,"" Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Chicago, Illinois, November, 2013.

B. Brinton, M. Colton, M. Fujiki, M. Goodrich, L. Robinson, S. Richie, and K. Lowe, ""Using Robots to Increase Social Engagement in Children with ASD,"" Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Atlanta, Georgia, November, 2012.

B. Brinton, M. Fujiki, A. Acerson, M. Maxfield, L. Robinson, M. Colton, M. Goodrich, A. Atherton, and D. Ricks, ""Enhancing Social Engagement in Two Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Effects of a Lose-Dose Intervention Program Using a Humanoid Robot,"" Symposium for Research on Child Language Disorders, Madison, Wisconsin, June, 2011.

B. Brinton, L. Robinson, M. Fujiki, A. Acerson, M. Hansen, M. Colton, M. Goodrich, A. Atherton, and D. Ricks, ""Enhancing Social Engagement in Children with ADS: Using a Robot,"" Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, San Diego, California, November, 2011.

R. George, S. Thomson, C. Mattson, M. Colton, and M. Tree, ""Optimization of Kinematics of a Flapping Wing Mechanism,"" 63rd Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics, Long Beach, California, 21-23 November, 2010.

P. Willemsen, S. Creem-Regehr, M. Colton, and W. Thompson, ""The effect of HMD mass and inertia on visually directed walking in virtual environments,"" 5th Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, Sarasota, Florida, May, 2005.

M.B. Colton, “Haptics and Robotics Research at BYU,” Summer School on Soft Robotics, Zurich, Switzerland, 18-22 June, 2012.

J.M. Hollerbach, E. Cohen, W.B. Thompson, D.E. Johnson, P. Willemsen, and M.B. Colton, “Virtual Prototyping for Human-Centric Design,” National Science Foundation Design and Manufacturing Research Conference, Birmingham, Alabama, 2003.

M.B. Colton, ""Reality-Based Modeling of Nonlinear Passive Devices for Haptic Simulations,"" PhD Dissertation, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2006.

M.B. Colton, ""An Experimental Neuroelectric Prosthetic Arm Control System,"" M.S. Thesis, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2001.

ME EN 273, Intro to Scientific Computing and CAE

ME EN 330, Design of Mechatronic Systems

ME EN 335, Dynamic System Modeling and Analysis

ME EN 363, Elementary Instrumentation

ME EN 431, Design of Control Systems

ME EN 475/476, Integrated Product and Process Engineering (Coach)

ME EN 534, Dynamics of Mechanical Systems

ME EN 633, Design of Digital Control Systems

Research Interests

Robotics, historical engineering

Teaching Interests

Dynamic systems, mechatronic systems, computing, dynamics, control systems

Courses Taught

Publications

Ryan GT Romero Mark B Colton Scott L Thomson Michael A Goodrich Mark B Colton Bonnie Brinton Martin Fujiki J. A. Atherton Dab Ricks Margaret Hansen Aersta Acerson Lee Ann Robinson Bonnie Brinton Mark B Colton Martin Fujiki Michael A Goodrich Lee Ann Robinson S. Richey K. Lowe Michael A Goodrich Mark B Colton Bonnie Brinton Martin Fujiki J. Alan Atherton Dab Ricks Margaret Hansen Aersta Acerson Lee Ann Robinson Bonnie Brinton Lee Ann Robinson Martin Fujiki Aersta Acerson Margaret Hansen Mark B Colton Michael A Goodrich J. Alan Atherton Daniel Ricks Bonnie Brinton Martin Fujiki Aersta Acerson M. Maxfield Lee Ann Robinson Mark B Colton Michael A Goodrich Alan Atherton Daniel Ricks Randal Winston Beard Mark B Colton Liang Sun Daniel Carlson Daniel J Ricks Mark B Colton Michael A Goodrich Randal Winston Beard Liang Sun Mark B Colton

Presentations

D. W. Williams P. Jepsen C. Ellington J. Christiansen R. Dibb D. Marler K. Boakye-Yiadom William G Pitt Mark B Colton Anton E Bowden Kenneth A Solen