AbstractThis paper presents a study for the development of a system capable of performing real‐time pseudo dynamic testing. The system combines the basics of the pseudo dynamic test with a dynamic actuator, a digital displacement transducer and a digital servo‐mechanism. The digital servo‐mechanism has been introduced to ensure accurate displacement and velocity control, in which digital feedback control with a time interval of 2 msec has been performed continuously during actuator motion. Using the system, pseudo dynamic tests under sinusoidal and earthquake ground motion are carried out for a structure having a viscous damper, demonstrating that a perfectly real‐time pseudo dynamic test can be achieved by incorporating the modified central difference method into an extra buffer operation of the digital servo‐mechanism. The responses solved by the pseudo dynamic tests are compared with the responses of the test structure as well as those obtained from post‐numerical analysis, and it is found that the real‐time pseudo dynamic test conducted in this stud