People Movement: Capabilities and Expansion of Current Models for Broader and More Robust Uses

Traditionally, people movement models have been developed with a focus on modeling evacuation in the case of a fire emergency. However, as the models and the industry have progressed, the needs of the people movement modeling community have expanded to include capabilities for non-fire emergencies and non-emergency scenarios such as ingress and circulation. Advances in wayfinding and decision-making technologies also provide an opportunity to improve people movement within a building but have not been fully integrated into existing models. Additionally, as models continue to be used for both emergency and non-emergency uses, the ability to represent more complex and realistic movements and agendas, such as carrying rolling luggage or group movement, have been identified and researched. These scenarios provide novel uses for existing egress models as well as present unique challenges.

This paper reviews the current capabilities of people movement models, non-traditional uses for egress models not related to fire egress, and the adaptations of models necessary to enable broader more robust simulations, including security and ingress, dynamic signage and active wayfinding, and interior tasks (carrying or pushing objects, occupant assistance, etc.)