SOFA: A Multi-Model Framework for Interactive Physical Simulation

Abstract

SOFA (Simulation Open Framework Architecture) is an open-source C++ library primarily targeted at interactive computational medical simulation. SOFA facilitates collaborations between specialists from various domains, by decomposing complex simulators into components designed independently and organized in a scenegraph data structure. Each component encapsulates one of the aspects of a simulation, such as the degrees of freedom, the forces and constraints, the differential equations, the main loop algorithms, the linear solvers, the collision detection al- Authors Suppressed Due to Excessive Length gorithms or the interaction devices. The simulated objects can be represented using several models, each of them optimized for a different task such as the computation of internal forces, collision detection, haptics or visual display. These models are synchronized during the simulation using a mapping mechanism. CPU and GPU implementations can be transparently combined to exploit the computational power of modern hardware architectures. Thanks to this flexible yet efficient architecture, SOFA can be used as a test-bed to compare models and algorithms, or as a basis for the development of complex, high-performance simulators.

Force Aware Haptic Rendering for Intubation Simulation

“…Tongue is modeled as soft body with tetrahedron FEM, Laryngoscope is 3D scanned and modeled as rigid body. Our collision handling and haptic rendering algorithm is implemented in SOFA [24], its modulized feature allows easy integration of new simulation techniques.…”

Visual servoing control of soft robots based on finite element model

“…However, it has been proved that we are capable today of computing FEM models of soft tissues in real-time for haptic rendering [6]. In order to get the Jacobian matrix for the control design, a simulation-based predictor is realized by updating a simulation model built in SOFA [7] (an opensource real-time FEM simulator). In this paper, combining the soft robotic system and its simulation model, a closed-loop controller is designed and the condition of robust stability is provided when the error of the estimated Jacobian matrix is considered.…”

Image-guided simulation of heterogeneous tissue deformation for augmented reality during hepatic surgery

“…Let us suppose that the mapping between the beam and tetrahedra nodes can be be expressed in a matrix form as f P = J T f v i where J is a 3N P × 6N V Jacobian matrix of the mapping between the nodes of parenchyma and vessels [7]. The global stiffness K matrix is then computed as…”