Objective: To present the first real-time a posteriori error-driven adaptive
finite element approach for real-time simulation and to demonstrate the method
on a needle insertion problem. Methods: We use corotational elasticity and a
frictional needle/tissue interaction model. The problem is solved using finite
elements within SOFA. The refinement strategy relies upon a hexahedron-based
finite element method, combined with a posteriori error estimation driven local
h-refinement, for simulating soft tissue deformation. Results: We control the
local and global error level in the mechanical fields (e.g. displacement or
stresses) during the simulation. We show the convergence of the algorithm on
academic examples, and demonstrate its practical usability on a percutaneous
procedure involving needle insertion in a liver. For the latter case, we
compare the force displacement curves obtained from the proposed adaptive
algorithm with that obtained from a uniform refinement approach. Conclusions:
Error control guarantees that a tolerable error level is not exceeded during
the simulations. Local mesh refinement accelerates simulations. Significance:
Our work provides a first step to discriminate between discretization error and
modeling error by providing a robust quantification of discretization error
during simulations.Comment: 12 pages, 16 figures, change of the title, submitted to IEEE TBM