Authors:
Kyle Feuz
and
Vicki Allan
Affiliation:
Utah State University, United States
Keyword(s):
Multi-agent systems, Pedestrian simulation, Heuristic route selection, Emergency egress.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Agents
;
Artificial Intelligence
;
Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support Systems
;
Bioinformatics
;
Biomedical Engineering
;
Distributed and Mobile Software Systems
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Information Systems Analysis and Specification
;
Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development
;
Knowledge-Based Systems
;
Methodologies and Technologies
;
Multi-Agent Systems
;
Operational Research
;
Simulation
;
Software Engineering
;
Symbolic Systems
;
Task Planning and Execution
Abstract:
Heuristic evaluation of possible route choices allows pedestrians to make decisions in a timely and efficient manner. The heuristic function used to evaluate the route and the subsequent route selection has a large impact on the egress time of the pedestrian. We implement several common heuristic functions using the PLEASE simulation model and allow these heuristics to be combined using weighted factors. When the total distance of a route is unknown, using a greedy strategy of selecting the shortest-leg first route is shown to be a poor choice. When combined with other heuristic estimates however, including shortest-leg first costs can help to decrease egress times. We show that for a variety of building layouts using a heuristic function based upon width, distance, signage and congestion levels leads to better egress times.