Modelling Rod-Like Flexible Biological Tissues for Medical Training

This paper outlines a framework of modelling slender rod-like structure of biological tissues in both global and local scales. Volumetric discretization of a rod-like structure is expensive in computation and therefore is not ideal for applications where real-time performance is essential. In our approach, the Cosserat rod model is introduced to capture the global shape changes, which models the structure as a one-dimensional entity, while the local deformation is handled separately. This way a good balance in accuracy and efficiency is achieved. These advantages make our method appropriate for the modelling of soft tissues for many medical training applications.