A Framework Combining Cellular Automata and Multi-Agents in a Unified Simulation System for Crowd Control

摘要

Controlling crowds in airports, train terminals, sporting events, etc., is a complex problem. This particular problem has a great deal of interaction between the entities themselves (i.e. among the individual members of the crowd) and the crowd (or individuals) with the environment in which the crowd is placed. This complexity of this system can be described in the much researched area of artificial life. By combining Cellular Automata (CA) with agents, we can construct a system to capture and control the ebb and flow of a crowd, including the particular characteristics of the individuals in the crowd. To this end, we have developed a prototype crowd control simulation system as a test case for this kind of problem. The imbedded CA provides a framework for flow of people, much like traffic models (Nagel, K., and Rasmussen, S. 1994) and (Blue, V. J. and Adler, J.L, 2000a), while the agent reproduces the behavior of a crowd, including subgroup behaviors, interactions, stochastic decisions of single units etc. This work is an extension of the web-based model in (Bruzzone, A. and Signorile 1999).