Synchronization of distributed simulations-a Kalman filter approach

In recent years distributed computing has been a strong trend in many areas of technical development. However, the abandoning of a centralized control flow leads to the problem of synchronizing many different actors involved in such a system. We present a new way of coupling real-time interactive simulation tools, for instance professional flight simulators, which rely on the exchange of notification messages. In our approach, a Kalman filter is used for estimation of state variables of any relevant object data in a most generic fashion. A key feature is the filter's ability to handle messages, which arrive in a non-equidistant stochastic manner at the site where the state information is required. This situation is usual for any communications facility used today for delivering the notification messages.