Title
Using Agent-Based Simulation of Human Behavior to Reduce Evacuation Time
Abstract
Human factors play a significant part in the time taken to evacuate due to an emergency. An agent-based simulation, using the Prometheus methodology (SEEP 1.5), has been developed to study the complex behavior of human (the `agents') in high-rise building evacuations. In the case of hostel evacuations, simulation results show that pre-evacuation phase takes 60.4% of Total Evacuation Time (TET). The movement phase (including queuing time) only takes 39.6% of TET. From sensitivity analysis, it can be shown that a reduction in TET by 41.2% can be achieved by improving the recognition phase. Emergency exit signs have been used as smart agents. Modified Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) was used to determine the feasibility of the evacuation routes. Both wayfinding methods, the `familiarity of environment', which is the most natural method, and the ACO method have been simulated and comparisons were made. In scenario 1, where there were no obstacles, both methods achieved the same TET. However, in scenario 2, where an obstacle was present, the TET for the ACO wayfinding method was 21.6% shorter than the one for the `familiarity' wayfinding method.
Year
DOI
Venue
2008
10.1007/978-3-540-89674-6_40
PRIMA
Keywords
Field
DocType
aco method,emergency exit sign,agent-based simulation,human behavior,reduce evacuation time,human factor,pre-evacuation phase,movement phase,aco wayfinding method,natural method,recognition phase,wayfinding method,ant colony optimization,human factors,sensitivity analysis
Ant colony optimization algorithms,Obstacle,Simulation,Computer science,Queueing theory,Emergency exit
Conference
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
5357
0302-9743
4
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.57
5
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Arief Rahman140.57
Ahmad Kamil Mahmood2399.93
Etienne Schneider340.57