Towards an Integrated Approach to Crowd Analysis and Crowd Synthesis: a Case Study and First Results

TL;DR

This paper introduces an integrated approach combining crowd analysis and synthesis, supported by empirical data, to develop an adaptive pedestrian model that maintains group cohesion in challenging scenarios.

Contribution

It presents a novel integrated framework for crowd analysis and synthesis, including a new adaptive pedestrian model based on empirical observations.

Findings

Successful development of a model for group-cohesive pedestrian behavior

Empirical data supports the iterative analysis and synthesis process

Initial results demonstrate the model's effectiveness in complex scenarios

Abstract

Studies related to crowds of pedestrians, both those of theoretical nature and application oriented ones, have generally focused on either the analysis or the synthesis of the phenomena related to the interplay between individual pedestrians, each characterised by goals, preferences and potentially relevant relationships with others, and the environment in which they are situated. The cases in which these activities have been systematically integrated for a mutual benefit are still very few compared to the corpus of crowd related literature. This paper presents a case study of an integrated approach to the definition of an innovative model for pedestrian and crowd simulation (on the side of synthesis) that was actually motivated and supported by the analyses of empirical data acquired from both experimental settings and observations in real world scenarios. In particular, we will introduce a model for the adaptive behaviour of pedestrians that are also members of groups, that strive to maintain their cohesion even in difficult (e.g. high density) situations. The paper will show how the synthesis phase also provided inputs to the analysis of empirical data, in a virtuous circle.