An Improved Soft Tissue Deformation Simulation Model Based on Mass Spring

A key difficulty in the research of virtual surgery system is soft tissue deformation simulation. The mass-spring model has become one of the most important modeling methods for human soft tissue owing to its simplicity and high efficiency. In this paper, an improved model is proposed for remedying the genic defects of the classical mass-spring model. Soft tissue is divided into different levels of a surface model by introducing the concept of the virtual stress layer. Different springs with virtual stress functions are set to connect these discrete layers so that they can behave as a whole. Since the change of the connection of masses and the transfer of force between adjacent model layers, the improved model is endowed with a more flexible organization and diversified physical attributes. To verify the universality, the improved model is applied to different organs. Meanwhile, parallel computing technology is introduced to reduce the time cost of deformation. The experimental results demonstrate that the improved model achieves certain improvements in real-time performance and simulation realism compared with the classical mass-spring model.