Open Conference Systems, DDAYS LAC 2024 Main Conference

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Improved performance of emergency evacuations by means of moving automata
Guillermo Frank, Claudio Dorso

Building: Cero Infinito
Room: Posters hall
Date: 2024-12-10 04:30 PM – 06:30 PM
Last modified: 2024-11-19

Abstract


Congestions and time delays are of great concern during emergency evacuations. People rush to the exit, but the harder they try to escape, the slower they get out ("faster-is-slower" phenomenon). Researchers noticed, however, that obstacles may prevent long-lasting blockings near the exit (if carefully placed). Complementary, warning signals or attendant guidance are also known to help in specific circumstances. This investigation focuses on automata attendants moving among the crowd. After simulating many emergency situations in the context of the Social Force Model (SFM), we arrived to the conclusion that a few automata are enough to produce a noticeable improvement in the evacuation time. Surprisingly, the automata are not required to follow an elaborated strategy, but only mimic the humans' behavior. Its features, however, appear as relevant for the dynamics. So far, we observed that slim automata performs better than automata of the size of humans, regardless of their weight. Other features may also play a significant role in the evacuation time, although this is still under study.