Robot assisted evacuation simulation

Abstract

It is extremely challenging to safely evacuate a crowd from massive events and buildings such as concerts and football fields. Since the panic caused by the emergency evacuation has a higher risk to human lives, careful planning and suitable measures have to take place to ensure the safety of the citizens. This paper addresses the evacuation problem by suggesting a system utilizing robotics technologies to help the evacuation process. The proposed evacuation system provides a crowd behavior simulation using an agent-based model. The simulated evacuation will be observed by an unmanned aerial vehicle which communicates with the individuals and redirects them towards less crowded exits and away from the the danger source. Finally, the proposed system performance is evaluated and the benefits of using robot aid in evacuations are presented.