Pedestrian Dynamics in Presence of Groups : an Agent-Based Model Applied to a Real World Case Study

The paper introduces an agent-based model for the simulation of crowds of pedestrians whose main innovative element is the representation and management of an important type of social interaction among the pedestrians: members of groups, in fact, carry out of a form of interaction (by means of verbal or non-verbal communication) that allows them to preserve the cohesion of the group even in particular conditions, such as counter flows, presence of obstacles or narrow passages. The paper formally describes the model and presents its application to a real world scenario in which an analysis of the impact of groups on the overall observed system dynamics was performed. The simulation results are compared to empirical data and they show that the introduced model is able to produce quantitatively plausible results in situations characterised by the presence of groups of pedestrians.

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