My research is in the area of robotics, computer animation and graphics. A focus of my research deals with integrating aspects of robotic motion planning with animation applications. The main applications include pursuit-evasion scenarios, evacuation planning and motion planning in dynamic and complex environments. We have shown that the behavior of a group of agents can be improved by utilizin...

Nuclear emergency evacuation is important to prevent radioactive harms by hazardous materials and to limit the accidents' consequences; however, uncertainties are involved in the components and processes of such a management system. In the study, an interval-parameter joint-probabilistic integer programming (IJIP) method is developed for emergency evacuation management under uncertainties. Opti...

In planning evacuation schedules various projects work on devising optimal schedules for evacuation of the population. These assume that people do as they are asked in terms of when and by what route they leave the area. However, we know from numerous case studies, that this is not so. People have their own priorities and concerns and will address these before doing as they are asked. We know f...

Realistic mobility modeling is necessary for testing disaster management strategies as well as performance of disaster-resilient networks. Evacuation of the people from a disaster area depends on the environment and type of the hazard which cause certain changes in the pedestrian flows. Although most models focus on the building evacuations or city-scale evacuation planning, there is a need for...

Wildfires cause devastation on communities, most significantly loss of life. The safety of at-risk populations depends on accurate risk assessment and emergency planning. Evacuation modelling and simulation systems are essential tools for such planning and decision making. During a wildfire evacuation, the behaviour of people is a key factor; what people do, and when they do it, depends heavily...

We describe an application of a dynamic replanning technique in a highly dynamic and complex domain: the military aeromedical evacuation of patients to medical treatment facilities. U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) is the DoD agency responsible for evacuating patients during wartime and peace. Doctrinally, patients requiring extended treatment must be evacuated by air to a suitable Medi...

Most of the existing research on emergency evacuation strategies focus on city evacuation planning that highly depends on the use of vehicles or evacuation from buildings. However, for large areas with limited use of vehicles such as theme parks, evacuation of pedestrians and emergent events must be tracked for safety reasons. As hazards may cause certain damages to services, networks with disa...