Pedestrian Simulation using Geometric Reasoning in Velocity Space

We present a novel pedestrian representation based on a new model of pedestrian motion coupled with a geometric optimization method. The model of pedestrian motion seeks to capture the underlying physiological and psychological factors which give rise to the fundamental diagram — the phenomenon that pedestrian speed reduces as density increases. The optimization method computes collision-free velocities directly in velocity space. The resultant method exhibits the same types of self-organizing behaviors shown by previous models, is both computationally efficient and numerically stable, can be intuitively tuned to model cross-cultural variation, and is sufficiently robust that a single set of simulation parameters produces viable results in multiple scenarios.