Simulation of Pedestrian Agent Crowds, with Crisis Simulation of Pedestrian Agent Crowds, with Crisis

Multiple application areas have an interest in pedestrian dynamics. These range from urban design of public areas to evacuation dynamics to effective product placement within a store. In Hoogendoorn et al [Hoogendoorn 2002] multiple abstractions utilized in simulations or calculations involving pedestrian agents include (1) cost models for selected route choice, (2) macroscopic pedestrian operations, and (3) microscopic behavior. A variety of mathematical and computational techniques have been used in studying aspects of pedestrian behavior, including regression models, queuing models that describe pedestrian movement from one node to another, macroscopic models that make use of Boltzmann-like equations, and microscopic approaches. Microscopic approaches include social force models and cellular automata models. The ‘social force’ models can involve ad hoc analogies to physical forces. For example, a floor may be viewed as having a ‘repulsive’ or ‘attractive’ force, depending on the amount of previous pedestrian traffic. Cellular automata models are based on pedestrian walking rules that have been gleaned from observations, such as those developed from Blue and Adler [2000].