Towards Automatic and Robust Adjustment of Human Behavioral Parameters in a Pedestrian Stream Model to Measured Data

People die or get injured at mass events when the crowd gets out of control. Urbanization and the increasing popularity of mass events, from soccer games to religious celebrations, enforce this trend. Thus, there is a strong need to better control crowd behavior. Here, simulation of pedestrian streams can be very helpful: Simulations allow a user to run through a number of scenarios in a critical situation and thereby to investigate adequate measures to improve security. In order to make realistic, reliable predictions, a model must be able to reproduce the data known from experiments quantitatively. Therefore, automatic and fast calibration methods are needed that can easily adapt model parameters to different scenarios. Also, the model must be robust. Small changes or measurement errors in the crucial input parameters must not lead to disproportionally large changes in the simulation outcome and thus potentially useless results. In this paper, the authors present two methods to automatically calibrate pedestrian simulations to the socio-cultural parameters captured through measured fundamental diagrams. They then introduce a concept of robustness to compare the two methods. In particular, they propose a quantitative estimation of parameter quality and a method of parameter selection based on a criterion for robustness. The authors conclude by discussing the results of these test scenarios and proposing further steps for this research.

• Record URL:
  • http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925753511003432
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/09257535
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier
• Authors:
  • Davidich, M
  • Koster, G
• Publication Date: 2012-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 1253-1260
• Serial:
  • Safety Science
  • Volume: 50
  • Issue Number: 5
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0925-7535
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09257535

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Calibration; Computer models; Evacuation; Pedestrian flow; Pedestrians; Traffic simulation
• Uncontrolled Terms: Robustness
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; I73: Traffic Control; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01368466
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 25 2012 8:36AM