Modelling group dynamics for crowd simulations

Abstract

This paper investigates a new method to simulate pedestrian crowd movement in a large and complex virtual environment, representing a public space such as a shopping mall. To demonstrate pedestrian dynamics, we consider groups of pedestrians of different size, sharing a crowded environment. A pedestrian has its own characteristics, such as gender, age, position, velocity, and energy. The proposed method uses a multi-group microscopic model to generate real-time trajectories for all people moving in the defined virtual environment. Additionally, a dynamic model is introduced for modelling group behaviour. Based on the proposed method, all pedestrians in each group can continuously adjust their attributes and optimize their path towards the desired visiting targets, while avoiding obstacles and other pedestrians. Simulation results show that the proposed method can describe a realistic simulation of dynamic behaviour.