Computational Framework Incorporating Human Behaviors for Egress Simulations

Studies of past emergency events indicate that evacuating occupants often exhibit social behaviors that affect the evacuation process. This paper describes a multiagent-based simulation framework that enables the modeling of social behaviors during evacuation. Each agent is modeled using a three-level representation that allows users to incorporate individual, group, and crowd behavioral rules in the simulation. The authors describe the basic framework and the implementation of several social behaviors, which are based on recent social science studies about human responses in emergency situations. Simulation results from the prototype reveal that social behaviors exhibited by an evacuating crowd can have an effect on the overall egress time and pattern. By representing the virtual agents and the environment specific to an evacuation situation, the research addresses the issues in incorporating human and social behaviors in egress simulations.