Xiaoshan Pan

A multi-agent based framework for the simulation of human and social behaviors during emergency evacuations

Many computational tools for the simulation and design of emergency evacuation and egress are now available. However, due to the scarcity of human and social behavioral data, these computational tools rely on assumptions that have been found inconsistent or unrealistic. This paper presents a multi-agent based framework for simulating human and social behavior during emergency evacuation. A prototype system has been developed, which is able to demonstrate some emergent behaviors, such as competitive, queuing, and herding behaviors. For illustration, an example application of the system for safe egress design is provided.

A Multi-Agent Based Simulation Framework for the Study of Human and Social Behavior in Egress Analysis

There exist a wide variety of computational tools for the simulation and design of exits. However, due to the scarcity of behavioral data, these tools rely heavily on the assumptions about human individual and social behaviors. Many of these assumptions have been found inconsistent or incorrect. This paper presents a multi-agent based framework for studying human and social behavior during building emergency evacuations. A prototype system has been developed, which is able to demonstrate some emergent human social behaviors, such as competitive, queuing, and herding behaviors.

Ontology-based Semantic Classification of Unstructured Documents

As more and more knowledge and information becomes available through computers, a critical capability of systems supporting knowledge management is the classification of documents into categories that are meaningful to the user. In a step beyond the use of keywords, we developed a system that analyzes the sentences contained in unstructured or semi-structured documents, and utilizes an ontology reflecting the domain knowledge for a semantic classification of the documents. An experimental system has been implemented for the analysis of small documents in combination with a limited ontology; an extension to larger sets of documents and extended ontologies, together with an application to practical tasks, is the focus of ongoing work.

Incorporating Social Behaviors in Egress Simulation

Emergency evacuation (egress) is considered one of the most important issues in the design of buildings and public facilities. Given the complexity and variability in an evacuation situation, computational simulation tool is often used to help assess the performance of an egress design. Studies have revealed that social behaviors can have significant influence on the evacuating crowd during an emergency. Among the challenges in designing safe egress thus include identifying the social behaviors and incorporating them in the design analysis. Even though many egress simulation tools now exist, realistic human and social behaviors commonly observed in emergency situations are not supported. This paper describes an egress simulation approach that incorporates research results from social science regarding human and social behaviors observed in emergency situations. By integrating the behavioral theories proposed by social scientists, the simulation tool can potentially produce more realistic predications than current tools which heavily rely on simplified and, in most cases, mathematical assumptions.

Using motion planning to determine the existence of an accessible route in a CAD environment.

ABSTRACT We describe an algorithm based on motion-planning techniques to determine the existence of an accessible route through a facility for a wheeled mobility device. The algorithm is based on LaValles work on rapidly exploring random trees and is enhanced to take into consideration the particularities of the accessible route domain. Specifically, the algorithm is designed to allow performance-based analysis and evaluation of a facility. Furthermore, the parameters of a wheeled mobility device can be varied without recompilation, thus allowing standards writers, facility designers, and wheeled mobility device manufacturers to vary them accordingly. The algorithm has been implemented in a computer tool that works within a computer-aided design and drafting environment.