Improving the Realism of Agent Movement for High Density Crowd Simulation

Nuria Pelechano and Norman I. Badler
University of Pennsylvania, Center for Human Modeling and Simulation




Videos:

(You will need DivX codec to watch these videos).


Comparison of basic Helbing's model against MACES+HiDAC during extreme panic situations
This video shows the differences between using Helbing’s model as it is and our approach. As it can be observed, Helbing’s model works well for 2D simulations when the individuals are represented by dots, but when trying to animate 3D figures (even if they are simple representations of humans) the model lacks realism. The figures behave more like particle simulation than like real crowds of human beings.

High density crowd with red-head people pushing
This video shows a medium and high density crowds in which some of the individuals (red-head) are either impatient or in panic. The video shows how the majority of the individuals have an organized behavior (waiting for others to move, respecting personal distances, etc) while the individuals with red-hair have an agitated behavior. This behavior is achieved by increasing their speed (running behavior), not respecting inter-personal distances, and letting them push others in order to open their way through the crowd.

High density crowd with organized behavior
This video shows an organized crowd. As it can be observed, this could simulate people leaving a building (university, theater, etc) under no rush or panic. Individuals tend to form lines, and respect others’ path. This behavior is achieved by using waiting rules when there is no space available to make a move in the desired direction of movement. By tuning the tangential forces between agents to avoid collision, we can choose between simulating more or less line formation (e.g. forming lines of one, or wider lines)

High density crowd with panic behavior in a building with two floors

Video showing a comparison between Helging's model and MACES+HiDAC, bi-directional flows with low and high density, and queuing behavior.

Video showing pushing behavior, interactive way finding, impatient behavior in bottlenecks and panic propagation.

Video showing people falling when being pushed and other agents trying to avoid them.






Updated May 2006 by Nuria Pelechano