A method of pedestrian flow monitoring based on received signal strength

There is a wide demand for people counting and pedestrian flow monitoring in large public places such as scenic tourist areas, shopping malls, stations, squares, and so on. Based on the feedback from the pedestrian flow monitoring system, resources can be optimally allocated to maximize social and economic benefits. Moreover, trampling accidents can be avoided because pedestrian guidance is carried out in time. In order to meet these requirements, we propose a method of pedestrian flow monitoring based on the received signal strength (RSS) of wireless sensor networks. This method mainly utilizes the shadow attenuation effect of pedestrians on radio frequency (RF) signals of effective links. In this paper, a deployment structure of RF wireless sensor network is firstly designed to monitor the pedestrians. Secondly, the features are extracted from the wavelet decomposition of RSS signal series with a short time. Lastly, the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm is trained by an experimental data set to distinguish the instantaneous number of pedestrian passing through the monitoring point. In the case of dense and sparse indoor personnel density, the accuracy of the SVM model is 88.9% and 94.5%, respectively. In the outdoor environment, the accuracy of the SVM model is 92.9%. The experimental results show that this method can realize the high precision monitoring of the flow of people in the context of real-time pedestrian flow monitoring.

Characteristics of merging behavior in large crowds

Merging pedestrian flow can be observed often at public intersections and locations where two or more channels merge. Because of restrictions on the flow, pedestrian congestion, or even crowd disasters (e.g. Hajj crush 2015) happen easily at these junctions. However, studies on merging behaviors in large crowds remain rare. This paper investigates the merging characteristics of the pedestrian flow with controlled experiments under laboratory conditions. The formation of lanes is observed, and the lane separation width can vary for different density levels. Shannon entropy is used to analyze the utilization of the passage. The space usage in the merging area is most efficient when the width of the two branches is half that of the main corridor. Furthermore, the branch and main channel can mutually bottleneck each other in the large crowds and the flowrates for the upstream, downstream and branches are investigated. This study uses spatiotemporal diagrams to explore the clogging propagation of the merging flow as well as the relationship of the velocity and position. The results can be used as references for the design of public infrastructure and human safety management.

Optimising Pedestrian Flow Around Large Stadiums

This study proposes a method that combines the cellular automaton model and the differential evolution algorithm for optimising pedestrian flow around large stadiums. A miniature version of a large stadium and its surrounding areas is constructed via the cellular automaton model. Special mechanisms are applied to influence the behaviour of an agent that leaves from a certain stadium gate. The agent may be attracted to a nearby business facility and/or guided to uncongested areas. The differential evolution algorithm is then used to determine the optimal probabilities of the influencing agents for each stadium gate. The main goal is to reduce the evacuation time, and other goals such as reducing the costs for the influencing agents’ behaviours and the individual evacuation time are also considered. We found that, although they worked differently in different scenarios, the attraction and guidance of agents significantly reduced the evacuation time. The optimal evacuation time was achieved with moderate attraction to the business facilities and strong guidance to the detouring route. The results demonstrate that the proposed method can provide a goal-dependent, exit-specific strategy that is otherwise hard to acquire for optimising pedestrian flow.

MEASURING PLACE ATTACHMENT, IDENTITY, AND MEMORY IN URBAN SPACES: CASE OF THE WALLED CITY OF LAHORE, PAKISTAN

Public spaces are essential for any city as they define place character; they are the meeting point for social and cultural actions. Place attachment is moulded by the tie between individuals and places. The research examines the historic streets, which are remainders of their period when the pedestrian flow was predominant and had exceptional qualities that supported social action. The changed settings nowadays might have changed people’s views and the investigation was made to question and check individual’s common memory and their sensitive ties to the historic streets. The four streets from the Walled City of Lahore were selected upon their significance of history and usage. The questionnaires were prepared and the fieldwork analysis was conducted face to face and selected streets were investigated in the terms of, place attachment, identity, and memory. The outcome proved that there is a promising feeling of attachment towards the selected streets and lacking qualities of a street can be improved if look closely at the worthy streets. The study addressed an important issue of marginalization and the results from the Shah-Almi street shows that their act will create the walled city streets to lose their identity as it is formed by its users.

MODEL OF INTELLECTUAL PEDESTRIAN FLOW MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

This scientific article proposes a model of pedestrian and car flow control system that can characterize the operation of two different control modes, the first of which is fully automatic, and the second works in automated mode, the results of which depend on information about the current situation on the road. the number of pedestrians and cars or depends on the intensity of traffic. In order to demonstrate the work of the proposed model, we will take some sections of the direct road where there is an adjustable pedestrian crossing. The system can determine the number of pedestrians in two ways: through surveillance cameras and with available statistics, such as information about the intensity at specific times. The second method, namely the application of pre-known parameters such as the intensity of pedestrian and traffic flows is used when it is impossible to determine the current situation on the road due to some reasons such as accident, bad weather and so on. The modes will be switched using the functionwhich will determine the mode of regulation of traffic lights according to the time intervals at which the intensity of the flows will also change. The automatic control system will work during rush hour, when the city's transport network operates. the greatest load. The second mode is for certain periods of time when the intensity of pedestrian flow is low, for example at night. The relationship between these intensity and time will be established statistically. The mode of automatic or "hard" regulation determines the duration of the pedestrian and car phases of traffic lights depending on the number of pedestrians and cars. If it is impossible to determine the number of road users using video cameras, then we calculate due to the intensity of traffic flows, and the automated control mode, ie "call" calculates the duration of the delay between two calls and the duration of the pedestrian phase. crowds and traffic near regulated pedestrian crossings.

A Quantitative Approach of Subway Station Passengers’ Heterogeneity of Decision Preference Considering Personality Traits During Emergency Evacuation

Subway station emergencies are gradually increasing in China. The aim of this research is to study the effects of “Dist”, “Pedestrian flow” and “Crowd density” on the heterogeneity of passengers’ decision-making preference and explore the relationship between heterogeneity and personality. Firstly, a questionnaire of 20 emergency evacuation scenarios, that includes the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, is designed. Secondly, the heterogeneity of passengers’ decision preference is quantified by the random parameter logit model. Finally, personality traits and influencing factors are used as abscissa and ordinate respectively, to study the relationship between personality traits and preference heterogeneity. The results show that the coefficients of “Dist”, “Pedestrian flow” and “Crowd density” are –0.101, 0.236 and –0.442 respectively, which are statistically significant. The proportion of extroverted passengers of the exit is 9% higher than that of introverted passengers when “Pedestrian flow” of the exit is greater than the average value, while the proportion of introverted passengers is 7% higher than that of extroverted passengers when “Crowd density” is smaller than the average value. The conclusion is that the three influence factors are random variables, and “Dist” shows the lowest level of heterogeneity. Extroverted passengers are more likely to follow a large crowd for evacuation, but introverted passengers are more likely to avoid crowded exits.

Development of Reliable Models of Signal-Controlled Intersections

The paper considers an approach to building various mathematical models for homogeneous groups of intersections manifested through the use of clustering methods. This is because of a significant spread in their traffic capacity, as well as the influence of several random factors. The initial data on the traffic flow of many intersections was obtained from real-time recorders of the convolutional neural network. As a result of the analysis, we revealed statistically significant differences between the groups of intersections and compiled their linear regression models as a basis for the subsequent formation of generic management decisions. To demonstrate visually the influence of random factors on the traffic capacity of intersections, we built distribution fields based on the fuzzy logic methods for one of the clusters consisting of 14 homogeneous intersections. Modeling was based on the Gaussian type of membership functions as it most fully reflects the random nature of the pedestrian flow and its discontinuity.