Survey of detection techniques, mathematical models and simulation software in pedestrian dynamics

The study of pedestrian dynamics has become in the latest years an increasing field of research. A relevant number of technicians have been looking for improving technologies able to detect walking people in various conditions. Several researchers have dedicated their works to model walking dynamics and general laws. Many studiers have developed interesting software to simulate pedestrian behavior in all sorts of situations and environments. Nevertheless, till nowadays, no research has been carried out to analyze all the three over-mentioned aspects. The remarked lack in literature of a complete research, pointing out the fundamental features of pedestrian detection techniques, pedestrian modelling and simulation and their tight relationships, motivates the draft of this paper. Aim of the paper is, first, to provide a schematic summary of each topic. Secondly, a more detailed description of the subjects is displayed, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each detection technology, the working logic of each model, outlining the inputs and the provided outputs, and the main features of the simulation software. Finally, the obtained results are summarized and discussed, in order to outline the correlation among the three explained themes

Emergency Evacuation Software Model For Simulation Of Physical Changes

Public space such as schools, cinemas, shopping malls, etc. must have an emergency evacuation system in place. Such places are also required to follow certain regulations and protocols for emergency evacuation to assure the safety of their occupants inside from any unpredictable incident. For nearly two decades, companies/organizations are using simulation models/software for evacuation planning. Researchers are working on these software models to improve the efficiency using latest algorithms. This thesis focuses on creating a base software model of evacuation systems for 3D indoor environments to simulate physical changes such as retractable chairs, movable walls etc., to evaluate their effectiveness before committing to those changes. This research tries to address various flaws and shortcomings of previous software. We are using tools like Unity 3D and Autodesk Maya to simulate suggested changes. It provides planners as well as researchers a new perspective to work on new recommended physical changes to design public venues

Inflow process of pedestrians to a confined space

To better design safe and comfortable urban spaces, understanding the nature of human crowd movement is important. However, precise interactions among pedestrians are difficult to measure in the presence of their complex decision-making processes and many related factors. While extensive studies on pedestrian flow through bottlenecks and corridors have been conducted, the dominant mode of interaction in these scenarios may not be relevant in different scenarios. Here, we attempt to decipher the factors that affect human reactions to other individuals from a different perspective. We conducted experiments employing the inflow process in which pedestrians successively enter a confined area (like an elevator) and look for a temporary position. In this process, pedestrians have a wider range of options regarding their motion than in the classical scenarios; therefore, other factors might become relevant. The preference of location is visualized by pedestrian density profiles obtained from recorded pedestrian trajectories. Non-trivial patterns of space acquisition, e.g., an apparent preference for positions near corners, were observed. This indicates the relevance of psychological and anticipative factors beyond the private sphere, which have not been deeply discussed so far in the literature on pedestrian dynamics. From the results, four major factors, which we call flow avoidance, distance cost, angle cost, and boundary preference, were suggested. We confirmed that a description of decision-making based on these factors can give a rise to realistic preference patterns, using a simple mathematical model. Our findings provide new perspectives and a baseline for considering the optimization of design and safety in crowded public areas and public transport carriers.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figure

Statistical fluctuations in pedestrian evacuation times and the effect of social contagion

Mathematical models of pedestrian evacuation and the associated simulation software have become essential tools for the assessment of the safety of public facilities and buildings. While a variety of models are now available, their calibration and test against empirical data are generally restricted to global, averaged quantities, the statistics compiled from the time series of individual escapes (" microscopic " statistics) measured in recent experiments are thus overlooked. In the same spirit, much research has primarily focused on the average global evacuation time, whereas the whole distribution of evacuation times over some set of realizations should matter. In the present paper we propose and discuss the validity of a simple relation between this distribution and the " microscopic " statistics, which is theoretically valid in the absence of correlations. To this purpose, we develop a minimal cellular automaton, with novel features that afford a semi-quantitative reproduction of the experimental " microscopic " statistics. We then introduce a process of social contagion of impatient behavior in the model and show that the simple relation under test may dramatically fail at high contagion strengths, the latter being responsible for the emergence of strong correlations in the system. We conclude with comments on the potential practical relevance for safety science of calculations based on " microscopic " statistics

Empirical results for pedestrian dynamics and their implications for cellular automata models

A large number of models for pedestrian dynamics have been developed over the years. However, so far not much attention has been paid to their quantitative validation. Usually the focus is on the reproduction of empirically observed collective phenomena, as lane formation in counterflow. This can give an indication for the realism of the model, but practical applications, e.g. in safety analysis, require quantitative predictions. We discuss the current experimental situation, especially for the fundamental diagram which is the most important quantity needed for calibration. In addition we consider the implications for the modelling based on cellular automata. As specific example the floor field model is introduced. Apart from the properties of its fundamental diagram we discuss the implications of an egress experiment for the relevance of conflicts and friction effects.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure

Concept of a Decision-Based Pedestrian Model

We develop a decision-based model for pedestrian dynamics which is an extension of the Stochastic Headway Distance Velocity (SHDV) model for single-file motion to two dimensions. The model is discrete in time, but continuous in space. It combines perception, anticipation and decision-making with the simplicity and stochasticity that are characteristic for cellular automaton models. The basic concept is discussed and preliminary results show that the model yield realistic trajectories and fundamental diagrams

An Evacuation Model for Passenger Ships That Includes the Influence of Obstacles in Cabins

Passenger behavior and ship environment are the key factors affecting evacuation efficiency. However, current studies ignore the interior layout of passenger ship cabins and treat the cabins as empty rooms. To investigate the influence of obstacles (e.g., tables and stools) on cabin evacuation, we propose an agent-based social force model for advanced evacuation analysis of passenger ships; this model uses a goal-driven submodel to determine a plan and an extended social force submodel to govern the movement of passengers. The extended social force submodel considers the interaction forces between the passengers, crew, and obstacles and minimises the range of these forces to improve computational efficiency. We drew the following conclusions based on a series of evacuation simulations conducted in this study: (1) the proposed model endows the passenger with the behaviors of bypassing and crossing obstacles, (2) funnel-shaped exits from cabins can improve evacuation efficiency, and (3) as the exit angle increases, the evacuation time also increases. These findings offer ship designers some insight towards increasing the safety of large passenger ships

From mindless masses to small groups: Conceptualizing collective behavior in crowd modeling.

Computer simulations are increasingly used to monitor and predict behavior at large crowd events, such as mass gatherings, festivals and evacuations. We critically examine the crowd modeling literature and call for future simulations of crowd behavior to be based more closely on findings from current social psychological research. A systematic review was conducted on the crowd modeling literature (N = 140 articles) to identify the assumptions about crowd behavior that modelers use in their simulations. Articles were coded according to the way in which crowd structure was modeled. It was found that 2 broad types are used: mass approaches and small group approaches. However, neither the mass nor the small group approaches can accurately simulate the large collective behavior that has been found in extensive empirical research on crowd events. We argue that to model crowd behavior realistically, simulations must use methods which allow crowd members to identify with each other, as suggested by self-categorization theory