Psychological Model for Animating Crowded

This paper proposes a psychological model forsimulating pedestrian behaviors in a crowdedspace. Our decision-making scheme controlsplausible avoidance behavior depending onthe positional relations among surroundingpersons, on the basis of a two-stage personalspace and a virtual memory structure asproposed in social psychology. Our systemdetermines pedestrian walking speed withthe crowd density to imitate the measureddata in urban engineering, and automaticallygenerates plausible motions of the individualpedestrian by composing a locomotion graphwith motion capture data. Our approachbased on psychology and a variety of actualmeasurements can increase the accuracy ofsimulation at both the micro and macro levels

Computer simulation of leadership, consensus decision making and collective behaviour in humans

The aim of this study is to evaluate the reliability of a crowd simulation model developed by the authors by reproducing Dyer et al.’s experiments(published in Philosophical Transactions in 2009) on human leadership and consensus decision-­making in a computer-­based environment. The theoretical crowd model of the simulation environment is presented, and its results are compared and analysed against Dyer et al.’s original experiments. It is concluded that the results are 11 largely consistent with the experiments, which demonstrates the reliability of the crowd model. Furthermore, the simulation data also reveals several additional new findings, namely: 1) the phenomena of sacrificing accuracy to reach a quicker consensus decision found in ants colonies was also discovered in the simulation; 2) the ability of reaching consensus in groups has a direct impact on the time and accuracy of arriving at the target position; 3) the positions of the informed individuals or leaders in the crowd could have significant impact on the overall crowd movement; 4) the simulation also confirmed Dyer et al.’s anecdotal evidence of the proportion of the leadership in large crowds and its effect on crowd movement. The potential applications of these findings are highlighted in the final discussion of this paper

Designing Agent-based Modeling in Dynamic Crowd Simulation for Stressful Environment

In recent years, modeling and simulation technologies have been gaining tremendous momentum in investigating crowd dynamics. Various simulation architectures have been developed and virtual environment representations have also been constructed for crowd simulations. To represent the behavior of a crowd, a number of behavior models have been proposed with different types of modeling approaches, such as flow-based models and agent-based models. Crowd models may also concern different aspects of a crowd. In modeling stress response, a method based on well-established theory of Generalized Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) has been developed to simulate the dynamic behavior of the crowd. However, there is still lacking of method to address the way virtual agent interacts with the instant changing behavior of the crowd during stressful events. This study were review current work on modelling stress and stress behavior models and extends it into the area of crowd simulation to simulate the behavior of the stress response of virtual agent during stressful events. It attempts to look into the solution of the problem and utilized a method based on the psychological theory of GAS to develop an algorithm for responsive virtual agent under stressful events by determining the dynamic behavior

Designing agent-based modeling in dynamic crowd simulation for stressful environment

In recent years, modeling and simulation technologies have been gaining tremendous momentum in investigating crowd dynamics.Various simulation architectures have been developed and virtual environment representations have also been constructed for crowd simulations.To represent the behavior of a crowd, a number of behavior models have been proposed with different types of modeling approaches, such as flow-based models and agent-based models.Crowd models may also concern different aspects of a crowd. In modeling stress response, a method based on well-established theory of Generalized Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) has been developed to simulate the dynamic behavior of the crowd.However, there is still lacking of method to address the way virtual agent interacts with the instant changing behavior of the crowd during stressful events.This study were review current work on modelling stress and stress behavior models and extends it into the area of crowd simulation to simulate the behavior of the stress response of virtual agent during stressful events.It attempts to look into the solution of the problem and utilized a method based on the psychological theory of GAS to develop an algorithm for responsive virtual agent under stressful events by determining the dynamic behavior

An Information Perception-Based Emotion Contagion Model for Fire Evacuation

In fires, people are easier to lose their mind. Panic will lead to irrational behavior and irreparable tragedy. It has great practical significance to make contingency plans for crowd evacuation in fires. However, existing studies about crowd simulation always paid much attention on the crowd density, but little attention on emotional contagion that may cause a panic. Based on settings about information space and information sharing, this paper proposes an emotional contagion model for crowd in panic situations. With the proposed model, a behavior mechanism is constructed for agents in the crowd and a prototype of system is developed for crowd simulation. Experiments are carried out to verify the proposed model. The results showed that the spread of panic not only related to the crowd density and the individual comfort level, but also related to people’s prior knowledge of fire evacuation. The model provides a new way for safety education and evacuation management. It is possible to avoid and reduce unsafe factors in the crowd with the lowest cost

Analyzing the Occupied Space of Passengers with Reduced Mobility in Metro Station Platforms: An Experimental Approach Using a Tracking System

The objective of this study is to analyze the occupied space of passengers with reduced mobility when boarding or alighting a train through an experimental approach based on a virtual tracking tool system to obtain their exact position. The designed experiments considered a train and its adjacent platform, in which 21 volunteers were recruited, 3 with reduced mobility. The results indicated that passengers with reduced mobility required up to 80% more space, compared to a passenger without reduced mobility, when waiting to board the train. The passenger who occupied the largest space was the one with a pram, reaching 1.70 m2/passenger, represented as a polygon. In addition, when passengers started to walk, the space used increased due to limb movement. In the alighting process, passengers with reduced mobility used almost twice the space required for the boarding process due to the relatively larger platform space occupied as each passenger alights and walks away, whereas when boarding, each passenger has less space to share with the other people waiting for the train to arrive or for the doors to open. These results could help practitioners improve the design of the platform or implement control measures, such as adding waiting areas for those passengers with reduced mobility. Further research is needed regarding other types of stations and density situations

Analyzing the Effect of Crowds on Passenger Behavior Inside Urban Trains through Laboratory Experiments—A Pilot Study

The objective is to study the distribution of passengers inside urban trains for different levels of crowding. The study is carried out through the observation of videos made by laboratory experiments in which a mock-up of a carriage represented the boarding and alighting process. The Fruin’s Level of Service (LOS) was adopted, but with a different approach, in which the train is divided into five zones (central hall, central aisle, side aisle, central seats and side seats). The experiments are based on the behavior of passengers in the London Underground; however, this study could be expanded to any conventional rail or LRT system. For the laboratory experiments, it is proposed to build a metro carriage and a corresponding platform section, and the scenarios will include different levels of crowding of passengers boarding and alighting to produce a variation in the density on the platform. According to the crowding level, the results allow obtaining the distribution and movements generated by passengers in the five zones for different instants of time during the process of boarding and alighting. It is observed that passengers are distributed according to safety and efficiency conditions. For example, passengers tried to avoid contact with each other unless it is inevitable. In relation to comfort, the seats of the carriage are always used even if there is a low level of crowding. If the crowding level increases, the boarding and alighting time go up. In addition, passengers will spend one or two seconds more if the “let’s get off before getting on the carriage” behavior is breached. This kind of experiment can be used in further research as a way to test “what-if” scenarios using this new method of discretization of the space inside the train, which cannot be tested in existing stations due to restrictions such as the weather, variability of the train frequency, current design of the trains, among others. New experiments are necessary for future research to include other types of passengers such as people with disabilities or reduced mobility

A perception-based emotion contagion model in crowd emergent evacuation simulation

With the increasing number of emergencies, the crowd simulation technology has attracted wide attention in recent years. Existing emergencies have shown that individuals are easy to be influenced by other’s emotion during the evacuation. This will make it easier for people to aggregate together and increase security risks. Some of the existing evacuation models without considering emotion are therefore not suitable for describing crowd behaviors in emergencies. We propose a perception-based emotion contagion model and use multi-agent technology to simulate the crowd behaviors. Navigation points are introduced to guide the movement of the agents. Based on the proposed model, a prototype simulation system for crowd emotion contagion is developed. The comparative simulation experiments verify that the model can effectively deduct the evacuation time and crowd emotion contagion. The proposed model could be an assistant analysis method for crowd management in emergencies

THE STANCE LOGISTICS: An Attempt to Adapt Logistics Principles on Human and Inter-human Movement Behaviors

The broad span of Logistics Management encompasses control of time, place, movement, energy (efforts, labor), as well as the positioning, stance and movement of products, materials, commodities, and people. This study coins the term Stance Logistics to focus on the stance and movement of people within the range of Logistics principles. The philosophy behind this is to enhance the required sensitivity with respect to management and control of time, place, movement, motion, stance and energy in material and nonmaterial exchanges and in all types of human encounters. Stance Logistics includes not only the “on foot” (pedestrian) or “in-vehicle” (automated) movements and public behaviour in stopping, standing, and positioning, but also individual predisposition of physical and mental response, and awareness (aesthesia). This essay describes the application of the scientific principles of Logistics to the personal experiences of people. Current Logistics literature includes mostly models developed on pedestrian and evacuation movement behaviour. To the author’s knowledge, however, there is nothing documented on the issue of personal individual Logistics Stance. Behaviours, especially that of blocking other people’s ways and passages, intervening, rudeness and queue-jumping in various environmental settings have not been extensively studied, if at all, whether during walking, pausing, stopping, face-to-face encounters, standing or waiting in lines and lanes or waiting for an elevator or metro train door to open. This study seeks underlying clues to increase sensitivity and awareness of people’s movement particularly in public areas by shedding light on Logistics behaviours of people. When combined with applicable models of pedestrian movements and integrated with the general principles of Logistics, Stance Logistics can serve as an important guide to facilitate the daily activities of many people. It is believed that, this exploratory study will pave the way for further research to produce promising results on the aspects of this new concept of Stance Logistic