54,872 research outputs found
VELOS : a VR platform for ship-evacuation analysis
Virtual Environment for Life On Ships (VELOS) is a multi-user Virtual Reality (VR) system that aims to support designers to assess (early in the design process) passenger and crew activities on a ship for both normal and hectic conditions of operations and to improve ship design accordingly. This article focuses on presenting the novel features of VELOS related to both its VR and evacuation-specific functionalities. These features include: (i) capability of multiple users’ immersion and active participation in the evacuation process, (ii) real-time interactivity and capability for making on-the-fly alterations of environment events and crowd-behavior parameters, (iii) capability of agents and avatars to move continuously on decks, (iv) integrated framework for both the simplified and advanced method of analysis according to the IMO/MSC 1033 Circular, (v) enrichment of the ship geometrical model with a topological model suitable for evacuation analysis, (vi) efficient interfaces for the dynamic specification and handling of the required heterogeneous input data, and (vii) post-processing of the calculated agent trajectories for extracting useful information for the evacuation process. VELOS evacuation functionality is illustrated using three evacuation test cases for a ro–ro passenger ship
The discrete dynamics of small-scale spatial events: agent-based models of mobility in carnivals and street parades
Small-scale spatial events are situations in which elements or objects vary in such away that temporal dynamics is intrinsic to their representation and explanation. Someof the clearest examples involve local movement from conventional traffic modelingto disaster evacuation where congestion, crowding, panic, and related safety issue arekey features of such events. We propose that such events can be simulated using newvariants of pedestrian model, which embody ideas about how behavior emerges fromthe accumulated interactions between small-scale objects. We present a model inwhich the event space is first explored by agents using ?swarm intelligence?. Armedwith information about the space, agents then move in an unobstructed fashion to theevent. Congestion and problems over safety are then resolved through introducingcontrols in an iterative fashion and rerunning the model until a ?safe solution? isreached. The model has been developed to simulate the effect of changing the route ofthe Notting Hill Carnival, an annual event held in west central London over 2 days inAugust each year. One of the key issues in using such simulation is how the processof modeling interacts with those who manage and control the event. As such, thischanges the nature of the modeling problem from one where control and optimizationis external to the model to one where this is intrinsic to the simulation
Guidelines for assessing pedestrian evacuation software applications
This paper serves to clearly identify and explain criteria to consider when evaluating the
suitability of a pedestrian evacuation software application to assess the evacuation
process of a building. Guidelines in the form of nine topic areas identify different
modelling approaches adopted, as well as features / functionality provided by
applications designed specifically for simulating the egress of pedestrians from inside a
building. The paper concludes with a synopsis of these guidelines, identifying key
questions (by topic area) to found an evaluation
GPU accelerated Nature Inspired Methods for Modelling Large Scale Bi-Directional Pedestrian Movement
Pedestrian movement, although ubiquitous and well-studied, is still not that
well understood due to the complicating nature of the embedded social dynamics.
Interest among researchers in simulating pedestrian movement and interactions
has grown significantly in part due to increased computational and
visualization capabilities afforded by high power computing. Different
approaches have been adopted to simulate pedestrian movement under various
circumstances and interactions. In the present work, bi-directional crowd
movement is simulated where an equal numbers of individuals try to reach the
opposite sides of an environment. Two movement methods are considered. First a
Least Effort Model (LEM) is investigated where agents try to take an optimal
path with as minimal changes from their intended path as possible. Following
this, a modified form of Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is proposed, where
individuals are guided by a goal of reaching the other side in a least effort
mode as well as a pheromone trail left by predecessors. The basic idea is to
increase agent interaction, thereby more closely reflecting a real world
scenario. The methodology utilizes Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) for general
purpose computing using the CUDA platform. Because of the inherent parallel
properties associated with pedestrian movement such as proximate interactions
of individuals on a 2D grid, GPUs are well suited. The main feature of the
implementation undertaken here is that the parallelism is data driven. The data
driven implementation leads to a speedup up to 18x compared to its sequential
counterpart running on a single threaded CPU. The numbers of pedestrians
considered in the model ranged from 2K to 100K representing numbers typical of
mass gathering events. A detailed discussion addresses implementation
challenges faced and averted
Macroscopic modeling and simulations of room evacuation
We analyze numerically two macroscopic models of crowd dynamics: the
classical Hughes model and the second order model being an extension to
pedestrian motion of the Payne-Whitham vehicular traffic model. The desired
direction of motion is determined by solving an eikonal equation with density
dependent running cost, which results in minimization of the travel time and
avoidance of congested areas. We apply a mixed finite volume-finite element
method to solve the problems and present error analysis for the eikonal solver,
gradient computation and the second order model yielding a first order
convergence. We show that Hughes' model is incapable of reproducing complex
crowd dynamics such as stop-and-go waves and clogging at bottlenecks. Finally,
using the second order model, we study numerically the evacuation of
pedestrians from a room through a narrow exit.Comment: 22 page
From individual behaviour to an evaluation of the collective evolution of crowds along footbridges
This paper proposes a crowd dynamic macroscopic model grounded on microscopic
phenomenological observations which are upscaled by means of a formal
mathematical procedure. The actual applicability of the model to real world
problems is tested by considering the pedestrian traffic along footbridges, of
interest for Structural and Transportation Engineering. The genuinely
macroscopic quantitative description of the crowd flow directly matches the
engineering need of bulk results. However, three issues beyond the sole
modelling are of primary importance: the pedestrian inflow conditions, the
numerical approximation of the equations for non trivial footbridge geometries,
and the calibration of the free parameters of the model on the basis of in situ
measurements currently available. These issues are discussed and a solution
strategy is proposed.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures in J. Engrg. Math., 201
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