Framework for Open Source Software Development for Organ Simulation in the Digital Human

During the fiscal year 2003, the focus of this project is threefold, described as follows:
Simulation Framework
The design of the architecture of the open surgical simulator framework has been completed. The main research effort during the fiscal year 2003 will be on completing the implementation of the open source release of the surgical simulator. Although this implementation is loosely based on the already existing VESTA surgical training simulator testbed, all the underlying simulation and computation engines are completely redesigned. The improvement over the existing system is on the modularity and extensibility of the simulation framework, adapting it to follow the proposed standard APIs, and to use the high performance computational tools. The simulation framework released at the end of the next fiscal year will include implementations of lumped element models, linear finite element models, nonlinear finite element models, and a multi-grid finite element integration scheme for mechanical deformation of objects. A novel haptic interfacing scheme will be implemented for the new simulation engine. The simulation engine will also supply uniform interfaces with the input/output devices for the models. In particular, a standard interface for graphical display of objects will be established and implemented. Requirements for including different computational models in the simulation engine and for addition of collision detection and response will also be studied.
API Design
The focus of this effort will be to complete the API specifications to cover collision detection/collision response within different mechanical models, mechanical connection between objects, and interfacing between different physical processes. How these APIs can be included in a grander scale medical simulation framework, such as the Digital Human project, will also be studied to identify the related issues.
Heart Model for Surgical Simulation
The focus of the heart modeling effort will be on implementing a basic multi-process heart model using the open source surgical simulation framework and the API specifications described above. The main objective will be evaluating the simulation framework and the APIs. The mechanical motion of the heart will be implemented using a more detailed physically based model. The blood dynamics will be modeled as a lumped fluid model and the basic physiology of the heart will be implemented as a hybrid dynamical model. These different processes will be implemented as separate physical processes and interfaced within the API specifications.