Robotic aid in crowd evacuation simulation

Abstract

Evacuating a building in case of emergency can lead to confusion, which in turn can cause a greater risk than the cause of the evacuation. Emergency personnel may be late to give the needed assistance. Robots are more likely to play a key role in recovery efforts. However, many scientific and technical challenges have to be solved in order to achieve the full potential of using robots for search and rescue missions. This paper reviews current technologies that can be used in simulating the evacuation. Different methods are considered for the group behaviour simulation. Existing work on crowd simulation is analysed. Finally, simulators that can support robot models as aid for disaster evacuation and search and rescue missions are discussed.