Quickest Paths in Simulations of Pedestrians

This contribution proposes a method to make agents in a microscopic simulation of pedestrian traffic walk approximately along a path of estimated minimal remaining travel time to their destination. Usually models of pedestrian dynamics are (implicitly) built on the assumption that pedestrians walk along the shortest path. Model elements formulated to make pedestrians locally avoid collisions and intrusion into personal space do not produce motion on quickest paths. Therefore a special model element is needed, if one wants to model and simulate pedestrians for whom travel time matters most (e.g. travelers in a station hall who are late for a train). Here such a model element is proposed, discussed and used within the Social Force Model.Comment: revised version submitte

Calibrating Dynamic Pedestrian Route Choice with an Extended Range Telepresence System

In this contribution we present the results of a pilot study in which an Extended Range Telepresence System is used to calibrate parameters of a pedestrian model for simulation. The parameters control a model element that is intended to make simulated agents walk in the direction of the esti- mated smallest remaining travel time. We use this to, first, show that that an Extended Range Telepresence System can serve for such a task in general and second to actually find simulation parameters that yield realistic results

Computer simulation of pedestrian dynamics at high densities

The increasing importance and magnitude of large-scale events in our society calls for continuous research in the field of pedestrian dynamics. This dissertation investigates the dynamics of pedestrian motion at high densities using computer simulations of stochastic models. The first part discusses the successful application of the Floor Field Cellular Automaton (FFCA) in an evacuation assistant that performs faster than real-time evacuation simulations of up to $50,000$ persons leaving a multi-purpose arena. A new interpretation of the matrix of preference improves the realism of the FFCA simulation in U-turns, for instance at the entrance to the stands. The focus of the second part is the experimentally observed feature of phase separation in pedestrian dynamics into a slow-moving and a completely jammed phase. This kind of phase separation is fundamentally different to known instances of phase separation in e.g. vehicular traffic. Different approaches to modeling the phase separation are discussed and an investigation of both established and new models of pedestrian dynamics illustrates the difficulties of finding a model able to reproduce the phenomenon. The Stochastic Headway Dependent Velocity Model is introduced and extensively analyzed, simulations of the model evolve into a phase-separated state in accordance with the experimental data. Key components of the model are its slow-to-start rule, minimum velocity, and large interaction range

Pedestrian velocity obstacles: pedestrian simulation through reasoning in velocity space

We live in a populous world. Furthermore, as social animals, we participate in activities which draw us together into shared spaces -- office buildings, city sidewalks, parks, events (e.g., religious, sporting, or political), etc. Models that can predict how crowds of humans behave in such settings would be valuable in allowing us to analyze the designs for novel environments and anticipate issues with space utility and safety. They would also better enable robots to safely work in a common environment with humans. Furthermore, credible simulation of crowds of humans would allow us to populate virtual worlds, helping to increase the immersive properties of virtual reality or entertainment applications. We propose a new model for pedestrian crowd simulation: Pedestrian Velocity Obstacles (PedVO). PedVO is based on Optimal Reciprocal Collision Avoidance (ORCA), a local navigation algorithm for computing optimal feasible velocities which simultaneously avoid collisions while still allowing the agents to progress toward their individual goals. PedVO extends ORCA by introducing new models of pedestrian behavior and relationships in conjunction with a modified geometric optimization planning technique to efficiently simulate agents with improved human-like behaviors. PedVO introduces asymmetric relationships between agents through two complementary techniques: Composite Agents and Right of Way. The former exploits the underlying collision avoidance mechanism to encode abstract factors and the latter modifies the optimization algorithm's constraint definition to enforce asymmetric coordination. PedVO further changes the optimization algorithm to more fully encode the agent's knowledge of its environment, allowing the agent to make more intelligent decisions, leading to a better utilization of space and improved flow. PedVO incorporates a new model, which works in conjunction with the local planning algorithm, to introduce a ubiquitous density-sensitive behavior observed in human crowds -- the so-called "fundamental diagram." We also provide a physically-plausible, interactive model for simulating walking motion to support the computed agent trajectories. We evaluate these techniques by simulating various scenarios, such as pedestrian experiments and a challenging real-world scenario: simulating the performance of the Tawaf, an aspect of the Muslim Hajj.Doctor of Philosoph

Configraphics:

This dissertation reports a PhD research on mathematical-computational models, methods, and techniques for analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of spatial configurations in architecture and urban design. Spatial configuration is a technical term that refers to the particular way in which a set of spaces are connected to one another as a network. Spatial configuration affects safety, security, and efficiency of functioning of complex buildings by facilitating certain patterns of movement and/or impeding other patterns. In cities and suburban built environments, spatial configuration affects accessibilities and influences travel behavioural patterns, e.g. choosing walking and cycling for short trips instead of travelling by cars. As such, spatial configuration effectively influences the social, economic, and environmental functioning of cities and complex buildings, by conducting human movement patterns. In this research, graph theory is used to mathematically model spatial configurations in order to provide intuitive ways of studying and designing spatial arrangements for architects and urban designers. The methods and tools presented in this dissertation are applicable in: arranging spatial layouts based on configuration graphs, e.g. by using bubble diagrams to ensure certain spatial requirements and qualities in complex buildings; and analysing the potential effects of decisions on the likely spatial performance of buildings and on mobility patterns in built environments for systematic comparison of designs or plans, e.g. as to their aptitude for pedestrians and cyclists. The dissertation reports two parallel tracks of work on architectural and urban configurations. The core concept of the architectural configuration track is the ‘bubble diagram’ and the core concept of the urban configuration track is the ‘easiest paths’ for walking and cycling. Walking and cycling have been chosen as the foci of this theme as they involve active physical, cognitive, and social encounter of people with built environments, all of which are influenced by spatial configuration. The methodologies presented in this dissertation have been implemented in design toolkits and made publicly available as freeware applications

How the planning, engineering and politics of transportation established, preserves and perpetuates the automobile city

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning; and, (S.M. in Transportation)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2012.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis. Page [167] blank.Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-166).The last eight decades of urban transportation planning and engineering in the United States have been dominated by the hegemony of the automobile. Auto-oriented planning of the transportation and land use system has had a profound impact on the built environment both in greenfield developments and neighborhoods that predated the auto. The pedestrian quality of cities has been eroded by the automobile, and urban renewal in the United States erased many neighborhoods strongly oriented around walking and transit use. Equally pervasive as the auto itself is the place for the car in the institutional cultures and practices involved in shaping the city. The shortcomings of mobility-oriented transportation planning have been well critiqued, even from the very early days of Interstate building. In recent decades there has been a flurry of interest in articulating sustainable transportation policies to provide multi-modal accessibility and to consider the interactions between transportation, land use, and other policy realms such as health, energy, environment and equity. The current impending crisis of aging and ailing highway structures in the United States presents a momentous opportunity to reassess the need and purpose of such infrastructure, and to rebuild, reconceptualize, or remove it in a matter more consistent with current policy goals and planning processes - rather than the ones in place when initially built. Despite the interest, need and opportunity to reconceptualize aging infrastructure in America to support a more sustainable reshaping of land use and activity patterns, the potential to do so is heavily impaired by a transportation planning process that is still dominated by the tools, methods and assumptions, political biases, procedural failures, and instilled human behaviors of the first highway-building era. The McGrath Highway in Somerville, MA is used as a case study to discuss how persistence of 1950s technical, procedural and political dysfunctions threaten to undermine this opportunity. Short-term actions and strategies to avoid this impending fate are suggested for McGrath Highway with applicability to a wider national context of similar opportunities.by Vignesh Krishnamurthy.S.M.in TransportationM.C.P

Deep Learning Based Malware Classification Using Deep Residual Network

The traditional malware detection approaches rely heavily on feature extraction procedure, in this paper we proposed a deep learning-based malware classification model by using a 18-layers deep residual network. Our model uses the raw bytecodes data of malware samples, converting the bytecodes to 3-channel RGB images and then applying the deep learning techniques to classify the malwares. Our experiment results show that the deep residual network model achieved an average accuracy of 86.54% by 5-fold cross validation. Comparing to the traditional methods for malware classification, our deep residual network model greatly simplify the malware detection and classification procedures, it achieved a very good classification accuracy as well. The dataset we used in this paper for training and testing is Malimg dataset, one of the biggest malware datasets released by vision research lab of UCSB

Integrationsaspekte der Simulation: Technik, Orgnisation und Personal, Karlsruhe, 7. und 8. Oktober 2010 = Integration Aspects of Simulation: Equipment, Organization and Personnell, Karlsruhe, 7th and 8th October 2010

Die Integration technischer, organisatorischer und personalorientierter Aspekte in Simulationsverfahren ist das Leitthema der 14. Fachtagung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Simulation (ASIM) innerhalb der Gesellschaft für Informatik, die vom Institut für Arbeitswissenschaft und Betriebsorganisation im Oktober 2010 ausgerichtet wurde. Der vorliegende Tagungsband gibt somit einen vertiefenden Einblick in neue Entwicklungen und Beispiele guter Praxis der Simulation über den deutschsprachigen Raum hinaus

Proceedings, MSVSCC 2019

Old Dominion University Department of Modeling, Simulation & Visualization Engineering (MSVE) and the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) held the 13th annual Modeling, Simulation & Visualization (MSV) Student Capstone Conference on April 18, 2019. The Conference featured student research and student projects that are central to MSV. Also participating in the conference were faculty members who volunteered their time to impart direct support to their students’ research, facilitated the various conference tracks, served as judges for each of the tracks, and provided overall assistance to the conference. Appreciating the purpose of the conference and working in a cohesive, collaborative effort, resulted in a successful symposium for everyone involved. These proceedings feature the works that were presented at the conference. Capstone Conference Chair: Dr. Yuzhong Shen Capstone Conference Student Chair: Daniel Pere

Proceedings, MSVSCC 2015

The Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) of Old Dominion University hosted the 2015 Modeling, Simulation, & Visualization Student capstone Conference on April 16th. The Capstone Conference features students in Modeling and Simulation, undergraduates and graduate degree programs, and fields from many colleges and/or universities. Students present their research to an audience of fellow students, faculty, judges, and other distinguished guests. For the students, these presentations afford them the opportunity to impart their innovative research to members of the M&S community from academic, industry, and government backgrounds. Also participating in the conference are faculty and judges who have volunteered their time to impart direct support to their students’ research, facilitate the various conference tracks, serve as judges for each of the tracks, and provide overall assistance to this conference. 2015 marks the ninth year of the VMASC Capstone Conference for Modeling, Simulation and Visualization. This year our conference attracted a number of fine student written papers and presentations, resulting in a total of 51 research works that were presented. This year’s conference had record attendance thanks to the support from the various different departments at Old Dominion University, other local Universities, and the United States Military Academy, at West Point. We greatly appreciated all of the work and energy that has gone into this year’s conference, it truly was a highly collaborative effort that has resulted in a very successful symposium for the M&S community and all of those involved. Below you will find a brief summary of the best papers and best presentations with some simple statistics of the overall conference contribution. Followed by that is a table of contents that breaks down by conference track category with a copy of each included body of work. Thank you again for your time and your contribution as this conference is designed to continuously evolve and adapt to better suit the authors and M&S supporters. Dr.Yuzhong Shen Graduate Program Director, MSVE Capstone Conference Chair John ShullGraduate Student, MSVE Capstone Conference Student Chai