An Architecture-Based Model for Underground Space Evacuation

There is no simulation model on evacuation nowadays taking the architectural inducement into account, which means that most of the architectural environment which effects evacuation behavior, is ignored. In this paper a concept model named AMUSE is presented based on an agent framework, with an agent that is designed to perceive the architectural environment as various clues, choose the right one and follow the related actions to evacuate in an underground space like real human beings would do. To investigate how the architectural clues take effect during the agent’s decision making process in evacuation, the authors classified 10 types of the architectural foreground clues constituting a complete architectural vocabulary. In the future work, statistic data from a series of tests in virtual environments are planned to calibrate the model, which will finally result in a performance-based evaluation tool for the architect on the evacuation efficiency of the underground space design