A Kinematic Constraint on Pedestrian Walking: Power-law Scaling between Critical Angular Velocity and Speed

TL;DR

This study uncovers a universal power-law relationship between critical angular velocity and speed in pedestrian movement, revealing a fundamental kinematic constraint across diverse experimental scenarios.

Contribution

It identifies a novel power-law scaling law linking angular velocity and speed, supported by extensive multi-scenario pedestrian data analysis.

Findings

Universal power-law scaling with exponent ~-0.8

Defines a bounded phase space region for pedestrian motion

Applicable across various pedestrian flow scenarios

Abstract

This paper presents a statistical analysis of speed and angular velocity obtained from pedestrian experiments across nine distinct datasets. Experimental scenarios included crossing motion, unidirectional/bidirectional flows, bidirectional/four-directional crossing flows, pedestrian-vehicle interactions, unidirectional flow in a circular corridor, and circle antipode configurations. We applied filtering methods to reduce noise and analyzed the data at different sampling frequencies. The results reveal a universal power-law scaling between critical angular velocity and speed, with a scaling exponent of approximately -0.8. This relationship defines a bounded region in the speed-angular velocity phase space, suggesting a kinematic constraint on pedestrian motion.