Crowd navigation for dynamic hazard avoidance in evacuation using emotional reciprocal velocity obstacles

Abstract

Crowd evacuation can be a challenging task, especially in emergency situations involving dynamically moving hazards. Effective obstacle avoidance is crucial for successful crowd evacuation, particularly in scenarios involving dynamic hazards such as natural or man-made disasters. In this paper, we propose a novel application of the emotional reciprocal velocity obstacles (ERVO) method for obstacle avoidance in dynamic hazard scenarios. ERVO is an established method that incorporates agent emotions and obstacle avoidance to produce more efficient and effective crowd navigation. Our approach improves on previous research by using ERVO to model the perceptive danger posed by dynamic hazards in real-time, which is crucial for rapid response in emergency situations. We conducted experiments to evaluate our approach and compared our results with other velocity obstacle methods. Our findings demonstrate that our approach is able to improve agent coordination, reduce congestion, and produce superior avoidance behavior. Our study shows that incorporating emotional reciprocity into obstacle avoidance can enhance crowd behavior in dynamic hazard scenarios.