A CROWD MOVEMENT AND BEHAVIOUR OBSERVATION TOOL WITH CONFIGURABLE INDIVIDUAL AGENTS TO SUPPORT BUILDING LAYOUT DESIGN AND NAVIGATION PLAN

This paper presents a configurable simulation tool that can simulate crowd movement and behaviour in real time. The tool has three main features: (1) demonstrate the impact of altering building layout (e.g. size of gates, positions of corridors); (2) highlight the effects on crowd behaviour and movement by varying the crowd composition; (3) demonstrate the influence of different external factors (e.g. signs, guide people) on crowd behaviour. The simulation results can be used to help improve building layout design or optimise navigation plans. This tool takes the multi-agent system approach to build a crowd model. Each agent represents an intelligent individual in the crowd and has a unique set of parameters to distinguish it from others. Agent conducts its behaviour by combining basic steering behaviours. Steering behaviours contain steering forces that are calculated by considering surroundings (including crowd and environment objects) as well as individual parameters. All of parameters and steering behaviours are configurable in order to fine-tune the crowd and environment to fit various scenarios. Crowd are formed through interaction and collaboration between agents and environment. Crowd movement and behaviour can be observed from the real time simulator. By altering building structure layout, composition of crowd and navigation plans, crowd movement and behaviour will change accordingly. Such observations and results will provide useful feedbacks to designers and planners