Real-time simulation using graceful degradation of accuracy

Real-time computer simulation is required in a number of applications, where the simulated dynamic systems are directly coupled with systems in the real world or with other systems also running in real-time. Typical problems of real-time simulations are that the dynamics of the modeled system are not represented in enough detail, either by not sampling the inputs or not producing output values frequently enough or both. Increasing the sampling frequencies may lead, as an additional problem, to real-time violations caused by insufficient computing power. The latter problem is amplified if the real-time is accelerated to achieve a kind of fast motion and reduce experiment times. In this paper, we show how the first problem can be solved by automatic frequency adjustment, minimizing the number of computations and how the remaining second problem can be reduced by trading a graceful degradation of accuracy against the computing power requirements automatically. Experiments show that simulation times could be reduced by a factor of 100 without unacceptable simulation errors.