Oscillating behavior within the social force model

TL;DR

This paper analyzes oscillating behaviors in the social force model for pedestrian dynamics, showing that with realistic parameters, the model can produce unrealistic oscillations and collisions.

Contribution

It provides an analysis of oscillations in a simplified social force model, highlighting conditions leading to unrealistic pedestrian behaviors.

Findings

Oscillations occur with realistic parameters

Distance-based models can produce collisions

Simplified analysis reveals oscillation conditions

Abstract

The social force model belongs to a class of microscopic force-based pedestrian model for which the interaction with the neighbors solely depends on the distance spacings. Yet, distance based models can lead to unrealistic oscillating behaviors with collision and negative peed (especially in 1D scenarios. With appropriate approximations we analyze the behavior of a simplified force-based model and show that with "realistic" parameter values the system oscillates.