Theme park crowd simulation using multi agent system

Abstract

Computer-based crowd simulation has become a dominant research topic today. Computerbased simulation applications are used in education, entertainment, training, theme park design

and building evacuation. Among them, virtual crowd simulation has become a dominant topic

in theme park industry. Limited research has been conducted in theme park crowd simulation

using

multi-agent system. Virtual simulations can be done changing the configurations, to decide the best-suited locations for stalls in the premises. Otherwise, it will cost a lot to change physically located items as experience and feedback.

In this research, Multi-Agent Technology has been used to simulate crowed behavior in Theme Park when an emergency is caused due to fire. NetLogo, a multi-agent simulation software, is used to build the modal. The crowd in the park is identified as agents. Different agents, children, parents, individuals and couples are programmed to behave as for social norms, defined under social science. The basic goal of every living agent, is to stay away from fire and evacuate from the closet exit as quickly as they can. But there are exceptional scenarios, unique to different agents. For instance, parents try to find their children, before existing from environment. We have defined coordinator agents to manage crowded areas and to help parent agents, who get lost while looking for their children. Logics, that governs each type of agent behavior are programmed in NetLogo.

The simulation is tested changing the number of agents and observed increment of evacuation time when the number of agents are increased.

In research simulation, few emergent phenomena were observed. One is, some areas get crowed while agents are evacuating the theme park. Another is, exits which are away from the fire location are getting crowded. And parent agents get lost in theme park while looking for their children.