Handling obstacles in pedestrian simulations: models and optimization

Abstract

In this paper we are concerned with the simulation of crowds in built environments, where obstacles play a role in the dynamics and in the interactions among pedestrians. First of all, we review the state-of-the-art of the techniques for handling obstacles in numerical simulations. Then, we introduce a new modelling technique which guarantees both impermeability and opacity of the obstacles, and does not require ad hoc runtime interventions to avoid collisions. Most important, we solve a complex optimization problem by means of the Particle Swarm Optimization method in order to exploit the so-called Braess's paradox. More precisely, we reduce the evacuation time from a room by adding in the walking area multiple obstacles optimally placed and shaped.

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Invisible control of self-organizing agents leaving unknown environments
• Mathematical models and methods for crowd dynamics control
• Robust Design Optimization for Egressing Pedestrians in Unknown Environments
• A generalized mean-field game model for the dynamics of pedestrians with limited predictive abilities
• Residence time of symmetric random walkers in a strip with large reflective obstacles
• Conditional expectation of the duration of the classical gambler problem with defects
• Localization of defects via residence time measures
• A lattice model for active--passive pedestrian dynamics: a quest for drafting effects