Agent-Based Simulation of Heterogeneous Crowd Flows in Critical Infrastructures During Emergencies

Abstract

Scope of this work was the development of a model able to simulate the flows and behaviours of heterogeneous crowds in a large transport hub, both in normal conditions and during an emergency, like a terrorist attack. These places are indeed also so-called “soft targets”, public spaces which are preferred targets of terrorists because they provide them with the opportunity to maximize casualties and publicity. Different modelling approaches were investigated and finally agent-based modelling and the BDI (belief-desire-intention) architecture were selected. Several scenarios were also identified to simulate the crowd behaviour. Flowcharts were developed to model users’ actions and interactions; while statecharts to model emergency conditions and behavioural changes. Simulations were then used to identify weak points in the infrastructure and to analyse the evacuation times for each user category investigated. Finally, various solutions were proposed and simulated, to improve crowd flows and reduce evacuation times.