A Review on Macroscopic Pedestrian Flow Modelling

This paper reviews several various approaches to macroscopic pedestrian modelling. It describes hydrodynamic models based on similarity of pedestrian flow with fluids and gases; first-order flow models that use fundamental diagrams and conservation equation; and a model similar to LWR vehicular traffic model, which allows non-classical shocks. At the end of the paper there is stated a comparison of described models, intended to find appropriate macroscopic model to eventually be a part of a hybrid model. The future work of the author is outlined

Vaccination center 4.0

Diplomová práce se zabývá modelováním pohybu osob ve vysokokapacitním vakcinačním centru během pandemie covid-19. Předmětem modelování je vakcinační centrum, které bylo provozováno Fakultní nemocnicí Brno na Brněnském výstavišti v první polovině roku 2021. Práce popisuje proces očkování v centru a s ním spojenou teorii pohybu osob. Na základě dat získaných mimo jiné analýzou videozáznamů pořízených v centru byl v programu Pathfinder vytvořen numerický model vakcinačního centra. Ten byl využit pro kapacitní posouzení vakcinačního centra a pro vytvoření návrhového modelu centra zvládajícího vyšší intenzity přicházejících pacientů. Výstupem diplomové práce je návrh dispozičního řešení vakcinačního centra, při kterém bude možné v centru očkovat nejvyšší počet pacientů za den.The diploma thesis deals with modeling the pedestrian movement in a high-capacity vaccination center during the covid-19 pandemic. The subject of the modeling is the vaccination center that was operated by the Brno University Hospital at the Brno Exhibition Center in the first half of 2021. The work describes the vaccination process in the center and the related theory of pedestrian movement. A numerical model of the vaccination center was created in the Pathfinder program on the basis of data obtained, among other things, from the analysis of video recordings taken at the center. This was used for the capacity assessment of the vaccination center and for the creation of a design model of the center handling a higher intensity of incoming patients. The output of the thesis is a proposal for the layout of the vaccination center, which will allow the center to vaccinate the highest number of patients per day.

Evaluación macroscópica del desplazamiento peatonal en la Av. Dintilhac a partir de un estudio microscópico

El estudio del desplazamiento peatonal ha sido un tema de interés para varios investigadores. A pesar de que numerosas investigaciones se han realizado para grupos peatonales con propósito de viaje obligatorio, son escasas las ocasiones en donde el objeto de estudio son universitarios con propósitos de viaje recreacionales. Es por tal motivo que en la presente investigación se realiza un estudio macroscópico del transporte peatonal en una vía principal dentro del campus de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, denominada Av. Dintilhac, la cuales es exclusiva para viandantes que en su mayoría jóvenes universitarios. Para tal finalidad, se recolecta información macroscópica del desplazamiento peatonal en tramos representativos de esta avenida y también las características físicas del entorno, mediante técnicas manuales y filmaciones, para luego poder construir un modelo para la micro simulación de la red peatonal en el programa Viswalk 8.0. Posteriormente a realizar la calibración, la validación y las simulaciones necesarias para rescatar información macroscópica (principalmente las velocidades y densidades peatonales) y así obtener, luego de análisis estadísticos de los resultados con niveles de confianza adecuados, la gráfica del diagrama fundamental y su respectiva fórmula. De este modo, se derivan diversas gráficas y fórmulas que permiten el análisis del desplazamiento peatonal en la Av. Dintilhac. Se finaliza la investigación con comparaciones con estudios previos a diferentes tipos de peatones, con la conclusión de que nuestro modelo se asemejaría en gran medida a estos modelos planteados con anterioridad, pero debido a la diferencia en la naturaleza del uso de la Av. Dintilhac (más social y de recreación que para viajes obligatorios), para una misma velocidad, las densidades serían menores. Además, se realiza la calificación de la calidad del desplazamiento mediante el uso de los niveles de servicio sugeridos por la H.C.M. (2000), en la cual se determinó que el nivel de desempeño de la Av. Dintilhac es aceptable, ya que, en espacios de tiempo de 10 minutos sería E, y en un intervalo de 30 minutos sería B. Por último, se proporcionan sugerencias para la modificación de la infraestructura de la avenida a partir de las gráficas ya obtenidas y en las cuales la densidad peatonal es uno de los ejes.Tesi

Wayfinding and Perception Abilities for Pedestrian Simulations

Computer simulations of pedestrian dynamics are common and reliable tools in order to evaluate safety risks of facilities. However, still many soft- ware frameworks for evacuation simulations imply the assumption that all simulated pedestrians are familiar with their environment and therefore take the shortest path to the outside. In fact, the spatial knowledge of people generally varies. Thus, the assumption that all persons of a build- ing possess comprehensive spatial knowledge is a rough approximation of the reality. Especially for simulations in complex buildings the reliability of this approximation is questionable. In order to make simulations of pedestrian dynamics more reliable in this regard, this thesis introduces a new software framework. This framework provides the possibility to predict route choices of a group of people with varying spatial knowledge degrees. Therefor, the framework also considers selected wayfinding strategies that are applied beside the use of spatial memories. These are using signage, using generalized knowledge about the structure of buildings, and search strategies. In addition, three studies have been conducted in order to investigate wayfinding abilities and strategies of people in office buildings and subway stations. The results of the studies are discussed and are used to calibrate and test the models of the new software framework. Finally, the framework is applied to conduct a case study of an evacuation scenario in a subway station. The case study turns out that the egress time in the station is strongly dependent on the wayfinding strategies and abilities of the occupants. This outcome suggests that the proper consideration and prediction of route choices is relevant and necessary for reliable evacuation simulations.Computersimulationen von Fußgängerströmen sind heutzutage ein gängiges Hilfsmittel, wenn es darum geht, Sicherheitsrisiken eines geplanten Neubaus oder Bestandsobjektes im Vorfeld zu erkennen und zu analysieren. Die Mehrheit der Modelle für die Routenwahl von Fußgängern legt die Annahme zugrunde, dass Menschen sich für einen Weg entscheiden, deren zurückzulegende Strecke möglichst kurz ist oder deren Reisezeit möglichst klein ist. Dies impliziert, dass sämtliche Räume, Ausgänge, Korridore, etc. jedem Fußgänger bekannt sind. Diese Annahme kann im Besonderem bei der Betrachtung von komplexen Gebäuden nur als starke Vereinfachung der menschlichen Orientierung bzw. Wegfindung angesehen werden. Um Evakuierungssimulation diesbezüglich zu verbessern bzw. belastbarer zu machen, stellt die vorliegende Thesis ein neues Software-Framework vor. Dieses bietet die Möglichkeit, auch Fußgänger bzw. deren Routenwahl abzubilden, die nur Teile des Gebäudes kennen oder denen das Gebäude unbekannt ist. Die Modelle des Frameworks berücksichtigen hierbei die Anwendung von räumlichem Wissen (kognitive Karte), die Nutzung der Fluchtwegsbeschilderung und die Verwendung von generalisiertem Wissen über Gebäudestrukturen. Des Weiteren wurden drei Studien zur Untersuchung der Wegewahl von Personen in Bürogebäuden und U-Bahnhöfen durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse der Studien werden in dieser Thesis diskutiert und zur Kalibrierung und Prüfung der Modelle herangezogen. Schließlich wird das Framework im Rahmen einer Simulationsstudie in einer U-Bahnstation angewendet. Diese Studie zeigt, dass die Räumungszeit der Station in Abhängigkeit der Wegfindungsstrategien und -fähigkeiten der Personen stark variieren kann und daher die Berücksichtigung menschlicher Wegfindung in Evakuierungssimulationen relevant ist

Multi-Scale Evacuation Models To Support Emergency And Disaster Response

Evacuation is a short-term measure to mitigate human injuries and losses by temporarily relocation of exposed population before, during, or after disasters. With the increasing growth of population and cities, buildings and urban areas are over-populated which brings about safety issues when there is a need for emergency evacuation. In disaster studies, simulation is widely used to explore how natural hazards might evolve in the future, and how societies might respond to these events. Accordingly, evacuation simulation is a potentially helpful tool for emergency responders and policy makers to evaluate the required time for evacuation and the estimated number and distribution of casualties under a disaster scenario. The healthcare system is an essential subsystem of communities which ensures the health and well-being of their residents. Hence, the resilience of the healthcare system plays an essential role in the resilience of the whole community. In disasters, patient mobility is a major challenge for healthcare systems to overcome. This is where the scientific society enters with modeling and simulation techniques to help decision-makers. Hospital evacuation simulation considering patients with different mobility characteristics, needs, and interactions, demands a microscopic modeling approach, like Agent-Based Modeling (ABM). However, as the system increases in size, the models become highly complex and intractable. Large-scale complex ABMs can be reduced by reformulating the micro-scale model of agents by a meso-scale model of population densities and partial differential equations, or a macro-scale model of population stocks and ordinary differential equations. However, reducing the size and fidelity of microscopic models to meso- or macro-scale models implies certain drawbacks. This dissertation contributes to the improvement of large-scale agent-based evacuation simulation and multi-scale hospital evacuation models. For large-scale agent-based models, application of bug navigation algorithms, popular in the field of robotics, is evaluated to improve the efficiency of such models. A candidate bug algorithm is proposed based on a performance evaluation framework, and its applicability and practicability are demonstrated by a real-world example. For hospital evacuation simulation, crowd evacuation considering people with different physical and mobility characteristics is modeled on three different scales: microscopic (ABM), mesoscopic (fluid dynamics model), and macroscopic (system dynamics model). Similar to the well-known Predator-Prey model, the results of this study show the extent to which macroscopic and mesoscopic models can produce global behaviors emerging from agents’ interactions in ABMs. To evaluate the performance of these multi-scale models, the evacuation of the emergency department at Johns Hopkins University is simulated, and the outputs and performance of the models are compared in terms of implementation complexity, required input data, provided output data, and computation time. It is concluded that the microscopic agent-based model is recommended to hospital emergency planners for long-term use such as evaluating different emergency scenarios and effectiveness of different evacuation plans. On the other hand, the macroscopic system dynamics model is best to be used as a simple tool (like an app) for rapid situation assessment and decision making in case of imminent events. The fluid dynamics model is found to be suitable only for studying crowd dynamics in medium to high densities, but it does not offer any competency as an evacuation simulation tool

Autonomous Robot Navigation through a Crowded and Dynamic Environment: Using A Novel form of Path Planning to Demonstrate Consideration towards Pedestrians and other Robots

This thesis presents a novel path planning algorithm for robotic crowd navigation through a pedestrian environment. The robot is designed to negotiate its way through the crowd using considerate movements. Unlike many other path planning algorithms, which assume cooperation with other pedestrians, this algorithm is completely independent and requires only observation. A considerate navigation strategy has been developed in this thesis, which utilises consideration as an directs an autonomous mobile robot. Using simple methods of predicting pedestrian movements, as well as simple relative distance and trajectory measurements between the robot and pedestrians, the robot can navigate through a crowd without causing disruption to pedestrian trajectories. Dynamic pedestrian positions are predicted using uncertainty ellipses. A novel Voronoi diagram-visibility graph hybrid roadmap is implemented so that the path planner can exploit any available gaps in between pedestrians, and plan considerate paths. The aim of the considerate path planner is to have the robot behave in specific ways when moving through the crowd. By predicting pedestrian trajectories, the robot can avoid interfering with them. Following preferences to move behind pedestrians, when cutting across their trajectories; to move in the same direction of the crowd when possible; and to slow down in crowded areas, will prevent any interference to individual pedestrians, as well as preventing an increase in congestion to the crowd as a whole. The effectiveness of the considerate navigation strategy is evaluated using simulated pedestrians, multiple mobile robots loaded with the path planning algorithm, as well as a real-life pedestrian dataset. The algorithm will highlight its ability to move with the aforementioned consideration towards each individual dynamic agent

Sistemi informativi intelligenti a supporto di passeggeri di un terminal aeroportuale: contenuti informativi, modelli di propensione all’uso, modelli di reazione all’informazione e specificazione di un ambiente di simulazione dinamico

2016 - 2017Over the last fifty years, world air transportation has undergone an extraordinary increase, much higher than other transport modes has been observed a profound transformation of the field. Nowadays, a new model of airport management company is emerging, following the idea that a commercial airport has to tend to the continuous improvement of services and activities, but it should aim to add value not only to aviation revenues, but also to revenues deriving from non-aviation activities. Currently, one of the main goal of airport operator is to ensure an adequate level of service in terms of travel times, movement spaces, information services, costs related to the management of internal resources, commercial revenues, with a view to wider competition and economic sustainability. In airport management, therefore, it becomes increasingly important the ability to create innovation and produce knowledge. Such aim can be achieved thanks to Information and communication technologies. In such scenario, four issues seem to be relevant: • The understanding of the potential willingness to use advanced and intelligent information systems in order to support the movement homeairport- boarding gate; • The analysis and simulation of willingness to pay for getting advanced and intelligent information systems; • The analysis and simulation of passenger behavior in the presence of information systems designed to reduce waiting times and travel experience; • The validation and implementation of behavioral logics of airport passengers in presence of advanced information systems. ... [edited by Author]XXX cicl