Simulation

Simulation is the process of designing a model of a real system and conducting experiments with the model for the purpose of either understanding the behavior of the system and/or evaluating various strategies for the operation of the system.

Simulation is used when the real system cannot be engaged because it may not be accessible, or it may be dangerous or unacceptable to engage, or it is being designed but not yet built, or it may simply not exist.

Clinical Healthcare Simulators

Medical simulators are increasingly being developed and installed to teach therapeutic and diagnostics procedures as well as medical concepts and decision making to personnel in the health professions. Simulators have been developed for training procedures ranging from the basics such as blood draw to laparoscopic surgery. It also helps prototyping new devices for biomedical engineering problems. Currently, simulators are applied to research and development of tools for new therapies, treatments and early diagnosis in medicine.

Improving Patient Safety through New Innovations

Patient safety is a concern in the medical industry. Patients have been known to suffer injuries and even death due to management error, and lack of using best standards of care and training. Someone has said that a health care provider’s ability to react prudently in an unexpected situation is one of the most critical factors in creating a positive outcome in medical emergency, regardless of whether it occurs on the battlefield, freeway or hospital emergency room. Its main purpose is to train medical professionals to reduce accidents during surgery, prescription, and general practice.

A thorough amount of studies has have shown that students engaged in medical simulation training have overall higher scores and retention rates than those trained through traditional means.

The main purpose of medical simulation is to properly educate students in various fields through the use of high technology simulators. According to the Instituted of the Medicine, 44,000 to 98,000 deaths annually are recorded due primarily to medical mistakes during treatment. If these are the direct result of medical mistakes, and the CDC reported in 1999 that roughly 2.4 million people died in the United States, the medical mistakes estimate represents 1.8% to 4% of all deaths, respectively. A near 5% representation of deaths primarily related to medical mistakes is simply unacceptable in the world of medicine. Anything that can assist in bringing this number down is highly recommended and medical simulation has proven to be the key assistant.

Flight Simulation

Flight Simulation Training Devices (FSTD) are used to train pilots on the ground. In comparison to training in an actual aircraft, simulation based training allows for the training of maneuvers or situations that may be impractical (or even dangerous) to perform in the aircraft, while keeping the pilot and instructor in a relatively low-risk environment on the ground. For example, electrical system failures, instrument failures, hydraulic system failures, and even flight control failures can be simulated without risk to the pilots or an aircraft.

Flight simulation also provides an economic advantage over training in an actual aircraft. Once fuel, maintenance, and insurance costs are taken into account, the operating costs of an FSTD are usually substantially lower than the operating costs of the simulated aircraft. For some large transport category airplanes, the operating costs may be several times lower for the FSTD than the actual aircraft.

Some people who use simulator software, especially flight simulator software, build their own simulator at home. Some people — in order to further the realism of their homemade simulator — buy used cards and racks that run the same software used by the original machine. While this involves solving the problem of matching hardware and software — and the problem that hundreds of cards plug into many different racks — many still find that solving these problems is well worthwhile. Some are so serious about realistic simulation that they will buy real aircraft parts, like complete nose sections of written-off aircraft, at aircraft boneyards. This permits people to simulate a hobby that they are unable to pursue in real life.

Robotics Simulation

A robotics simulator is used to create embedded applications for a specific (or not) robot without being dependent on the 'real' robot. In some cases, these applications can be transferred to the real robot (or rebuilt) without modifications. Robotics simulators allow reproducing situations that cannot be 'created' in the real world because of cost, time, or the 'uniqueness' of a resource. A simulator also allows fast robot prototyping. Many robot simulators feature physics engines to simulate a robot's dynamics.

Communication Satellite Simulation

Modern satellite communications systems (SatCom) are often large and complex with many interacting parts and elements. In addition, the need for broadband connectivity on a moving vehicle has increased dramatically in the past few years for both commercial and military applications. To accurately predict and deliver high quality of service, satcom system designers have to factor in terrain as well as atmospheric and meteorological conditions in their planning. To deal with such complexity, system designers and operators increasingly turn towards computer models of their systems to simulate real world operational conditions and gain insights in to usability and requirements prior to final product sign-off. Modeling improves the understanding of the system by enabling the SatCom system designer or planner to simulate real world performance by injecting the models with multiple hypothetical atmospheric and environmental conditions.

Compiled By: Chaudhary Amit V. (Content has been taken from Wikipedia)