Integrator
An integrator is a device to perform the mathematical operation known as integration, a fundamental operation in calculus.
The integration function is often part of engineering, physics, mechanical, chemical and scientific calculations.
Integrator in signal processing
Electronic devices have been constructed to perform integration (usually with respect to time) of signals. This operation is a form of first-order low-pass filter, which can be performed in the continuous-time (analog) domain or approximated (simulated) in the discrete-time (digital) domain. An integrator will have a low pass filtering effect but when given an offset it will accumulate a value building it until it reaches a limit of the system or overflows.
See also Integrator at op amp applications.
Integrator in computer simulation
In some computational physics computer simulations, such as numerical weather prediction, molecular dynamics, flight simulators, reservoir simulation, noise barrier design, architectural acoustics, and electronic circuit simulation, an integrator is a numerical method for integrating trajectories from forces (and thereby accelerations) that are only calculated at discrete time steps.
There are a variety of explicit and implicit methods used in computer simulations. The most basic and least accurate kind of numerical integration is Euler integration. Verlet integration improves the accuracy of the integration to within fourth-order Taylor series terms, and the Runge-Kutta method which is gaining popularity further improves this accuracy to within fifth-order Taylor series terms.
See also
- Fractional order integrator
- analog computer
- operational amplifier
- signal processing
- lowpass filter
- planimeter