Potential Field Approach of a Cellular Automaton Evacuation Model and Its FPGA Implementation

Abstract

Crowd evacuation from constructions can be modelled with the use of Cellular Automata. The crowd consists of individuals and its behaviour is modelled by the response of each individual to a simple updating rule that directs a person to the nearest exit as facilitates any object avoidance. Individual interactions are defined locally while the crowd motion evolves. In this paper, this motion approach is based on the concept of virtual potential fields that are defined by the location of exits, other pedestrians or objects. Electric charges located at exit and obstacle positions generate such fields. Characteristic features of crowd dynamics, such as incoherent-to-coherent pedestrian motion, blockings in front of exits and mass behaviour are successfully simulated. Finally, the paper presents the main architectural concepts of the corresponding dedicated FPGA processor, as the major structural part of an integrated, interactive, decision-support system.