Simulation device and simulation method

Abstract

The invention provides a simulation device and a simulation method, which can cope with bottleneck and obtain people flow simulation results with high recognition degree. A simulation device for simulating the flow of people is characterized in that the simulation device has a storage unit that stores layout information and a human model that holds at least destination information indicating the orientation in the layout information and current position information indicating the orientation in the layout information, and a simulation control unit that controls the layout information and the current position information. The control unit changes the movement control of the human model when a bottleneck, which indicates that the flow rate of the human model is limited, is detected within a certain range in front of the movement direction of the human model, and when the bottleneck is not detected, the control unit changes the movement control of the human model.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a simulation device and a simulation method for performing pedestrian flow simulation. Background Art

[0002] In recent years, for the purpose of evaluating countermeasures against problems caused by local concentration of people, for example, prior evaluation of evacuation guidance plans in the event of an incident or disaster, prior evaluation of congestion conditions accompanying the construction of new customer-attracting facilities, etc., a pedestrian flow simulation system that can reproduce pedestrian flow on a computer has been attracting attention.

[0003] In relation to the pedestrian flow simulation system, for example, in Patent Document 1, for the purpose of accurately simulating movement by being able to simulate interactions caused by different traveling directions, the following has been proposed: "Obtain the ratio of the number of mobile agents moving in one direction to the number of mobile agents moving in the other direction at a selected edge, calculate the width in the direction of the mobile agent's orientation based on the ratio of the number of people to the width of the edge, for each mobile agent, obtain the area of the section based on the forward length from the position of the mobile agent and the width calculated in the direction of the agent's orientation, and calculate the population density based on the area of the section and the mobile agents in different directions existing in the section. For each mobile agent, calculate the moving speed of the mobile agent based on the free walking speed of the agent information, the calculated population density, and a predetermined parameter."

[0004] Prior Art Documents

[0005] Patent Documents

[0006] Patent Document 1: WO2021 / 044481 Summary of the Invention

[0007] Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0008] According to Patent Document 1, the walking speed is determined by the number of people moving within the edge and the number of oncoming people, but the determination of the moving direction for avoiding contact in a crowded scenario is not mentioned. Therefore, in an environment where there are obstacles or narrow sections, for example, these can become bottlenecks, and sometimes a complete dead-lock can occur when a countercurrent is generated against the bottleneck.

[0009] Based on the above, the object of the present invention is to provide a simulation device and a simulation method that can cope with bottlenecks and obtain highly recognized pedestrian flow simulation results.

[0010] Means for Solving the Problems

[0011] According to the above, the present invention is a simulation device for simulating the flow of people. Among them, the simulation device has a storage unit and a simulation control unit. The storage unit stores layout information and a human model, and the human model at least maintains destination information and current position information. The destination information indicates where to go within the layout information. When the control unit detects a bottleneck within a certain range in front of the moving direction of the human model, it changes the movement control of the human model starting from the situation where no bottleneck is detected. Here, a bottleneck means that the flow of the human model is restricted.

[0012] In addition, the present invention is a simulation method for simulating the flow of people. Among them, the simulation method has a storage method and a simulation control method. In the storage method, any layout and a human model are stored. The human model at least maintains destination information and current position information. The destination information indicates where to go within the layout. In the control method, when a bottleneck area with a narrow passage width is detected within the visual range of the human model, the effect of avoiding oncoming people is enhanced compared to normal.

[0013] Advantages of the Invention

[0014] The present invention can provide a simulation device and a simulation method that can cope with bottlenecks and obtain highly recognized simulation results of the flow of people. Description of the Drawings

[0015] Figure 1 It is a diagram showing a structural example of the simulation device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0016] Figure 2 It is a diagram of a building showing an example of the environment to be simulated.

[0017] Figure 3 It is shown in Figure 2 A diagram of a building in which passage fragments are set.

[0018] Figure 4a It is a diagram showing the idea of determining the normal moving direction of the human model.

[0019] Figure 4b It is a diagram showing that an oncoming person M2 is detected in front of the moving direction.

[0020] Figure 4c It is a diagram showing that an oncoming person M2 is detected in the moving direction at the bottleneck.

[0021] Figure 5 It is a diagram showing Method 1 for identifying a bottleneck.

[0022] Figure 6 It is a diagram showing Method 2 for identifying a bottleneck.

[0023] Figure 7It is a diagram showing the processing flow in the preparation stage in advance.

[0024] Figure 8 It is a diagram showing the processing flow during the simulation process. Detailed implementation manners

[0025] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0026] Embodiment 1

[0027] Figure 1 It is a diagram showing a structural example of the simulation device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. The simulation device 1 is configured such that a storage unit DB, an arithmetic unit 12, an input / output device 13, and a bus 14 are connected.

[0028] Among them, layout information D1 of the environment to be simulated and a human model D2 for performing movement actions in this environment are stored in the storage unit DB. When the arithmetic unit 12 functionally represents its processing content, it can be said to have respective processing units such as a bottleneck detection unit 121, a human movement direction determination unit 122, and a human movement execution unit 123. The input / output device 13 includes: an input unit 131 for appropriately setting simulation conditions, etc., and an output unit (display unit) 132 for outputting the input setting data or simulation results.

[0029] Hereinafter, Figure 1 the operation of the simulation device will be described in detail, but as a prerequisite, several matters will be described. First, regarding the environment to be simulated, an appropriate place or device can be selected according to their respective analysis purposes, such as the building as listed in the embodiment Figure 2 like that. In addition, as a method for estimating the movement direction of a person on the simulation model, the Figure 4a , Figure 4b , Figure 4c cost method is used to perform.

[0030] As an example of the environment to be simulated, as shown in the top view of Figure 2 the building has multiple entrances and exits A and B. The entrance A faces an external passage, etc., and the entrance B is the position where an elevator for moving to each floor inside the building is provided. Here, a simplified representation is made, but as the entrance and exit, other stairs, etc. can also be included, and there can be multiple. In addition, Figure 2 the building in

[0031] sets a security door G, etc. between the entrances and exits A and B. Therefore, the area on the top view is divided into a passable area and a non-passable area. Figure 2For the pedestrian flow simulation of an object, for example, it is necessary to set the conditions required for modeling the movement of people in a building in advance. The setting process generally consists of three steps. First, referring to architectural drawings, etc., set the layout of each floor in the building and the building layout of the floor size or height. Next, configure various building equipment such as elevators, escalators, security doors, and automatic doors, and set their respective specifications for building equipment setting. Then, set the entrances or exits of the living rooms, and set the number of people moving from where to where, for the setting of people movement. Using the input / output device 13, perform these setting processes in advance while making appropriate displays.

[0032] By completing the setting of the building layout and the setting of building equipment, in Figure 1 's storage section, layout information D1 is formed as Figure 2 shown. More specifically, in the present invention, it is formed and stored as Figure 3 shown. In Figure 2 , the layout of each floor in the building and the floor size or height are set, but in Figure 3 , the area between entrances A and B is further divided into multiple regions in the direction of people movement, as information including the orthogonal direction distance. This is to set multiple path fragments on the path of people movement (for example, the shortest distance between entrances A and B), and calculate the horizontal distance for each path fragment.

[0033] Moreover, in the setting of people movement on the premise of the above settings, set the entrances or exits of the living rooms, and set the number of people moving from where to where. In addition, the information of the entrances or exits of the living rooms is included in the layout information D1 for management.

[0034] Here, regarding the processing of the human model at this time, especially as an idea for determining the movement direction of the human model, the cost method is adopted in the present invention. Figure 4a is a diagram showing the idea for determining the movement direction of the human model in normal times. Here, as the movement direction of the human model M1, for example, eight directions (front, back, left, right, and the directions of front left, front right, back left, and back right) are set on the ground plane, and costs are set for each direction. The costs are set according to size. Usually, if 10 is set in the front direction, then values larger than 10 are set for the other directions. In Figure 4a , only the front, front left, and front right are simply described, but the front left and front right are larger than 10 and are set to 14. Based on this setting, the direction with the lowest cost is set as the traveling direction.

[0035] In addition, on the premise of this cost setting, in the actual simulation process, as Figure 4bWhen a oncoming person M2 is detected in front of the moving direction, re-evaluation is performed to make the cost of the detection direction higher than the initial set value of 10, for example, set to 12. In addition, the cost after re-evaluation is set to 12, and the closer the distance to the oncoming person M2, the greater the cost is set. Thus, when the cost is greater than that of the left front and the right front, the moving direction of the human model can be set according to the principle of setting the direction with the lowest cost as the moving direction, so as to trigger avoidance actions such as moving in the left front and right front directions.

[0036] In Figure 1 the human model storage unit DB2, the information of the human model M1 in which the movement of people is set is stored for each person. These information are the number of people in time series, their respective entry or exit paths, destinations, cost information classified by direction, or include walking speed, etc.

[0037] On the basis of preparing the above storage content, in the bottleneck detection unit 121 in the operation unit 12, the bottleneck on the path to the destination is detected. A bottleneck refers to: for example, in an environment where there are obstacles or narrow parts, a part or position where a countercurrent is generated and congestion is likely to occur. The place where such a tendency is likely to be shown is set as the bottleneck environment.

[0038] In addition, in the simulation, the human model M1 travels along the path from the current position (for example, the entrance A of the building) to the entrance B as the destination (here, a straight line and the shortest distance path are adopted), and whether there is a bottleneck on this path is preset.

[0039] As Method 1 for identifying a bottleneck, in Figure 5 it is calculated by considering the horizontal distance set for the Figure 3 passage fragments stored in the layout information D1. In Figure 3 it is determined in advance the passage widths on the path from the entrance to the exit before the simulation, and the narrowest passage width among the passage widths included in the field of view of the human model M1 is used to detect the bottleneck when determining the moving direction during the simulation.

[0040] Method 2 for identifying a bottleneck is a method that does not use the Figure 3 prepared information in advance (distance information for each passage fragment). Here, as Figure 6 shown, if the area of the region that the person cannot enter within a certain range (field of view) in front when determining the moving direction of the person during the simulation is a certain area or more, it is set as a bottleneck.

[0041] In this way, in the bottleneck detection unit 121 in the operation unit 12, bottleneck detection is performed in the preparation stage before the simulation execution, or bottlenecks are detected during the simulation.

[0042] In summary, in a situation where a bottleneck is detected, Figure 1 the human movement direction determination unit 122 determines the direction of simulated human movement through cost setting processing. In addition, the cost operation when an oncoming person is detected in Figure 4b the described movement direction is also a process in the human movement direction determination unit 122.

[0043] In the present invention, it is also assumed that an oncoming person M2 is detected in the movement direction in the bottleneck portion. The human movement direction determination unit 122 detects that a simulated situation has occurred and performs a cost operation as Figure 4c described. This plays a role in strengthening the lane formation effect (parameters for avoiding oncoming persons) when a bottleneck is detected in the traveling direction of a person. Specifically, in a situation where a bottleneck is detected, applying a larger cost than normal in the direction where the oncoming person M2 is located makes it easier to determine the next movement direction.

[0044] If the front cost when detecting an oncoming person in Figure 4b is increased from 10 to 12 compared to normal, then under the condition of Figure 4c it is immediately increased to 15 in one go, exceeding the cost of 14 in the other direction, thereby immediately taking an avoidance action. In addition, by performing the same cost operation on other human models as well, a lane formation effect can be generated for the entire environment.

[0045] Regarding the above-mentioned cost operation, the following aspects can be further considered. For example, in Japan, the determination of the avoidance direction is made in accordance with the principle of driving on the right side, and thus it becomes cheaper to generate a lane formation effect for the entire environment. In addition, it is preferable that the cost increases as the bottleneck becomes narrower. And in Figure 6 it is preferable to include the area where the oncoming person M2 exists in the bottleneck portion within the field of view as a non-invadable area. The cost spent in the direction where the oncoming person M2 is located during the movement direction determination can be inversely proportional to the size of the non-invadable area within the field of view.

[0046] According to the above cost operation, without changing the flow characteristics of people at other locations, the effect of preventing deadlocks at bottlenecks can be achieved. This leads to an improvement in the accuracy of the simulator and the recognition of the effect.

[0047] In addition, in the premise description regarding the above cost setting, the front cost is set lower than the costs in other directions, and the cost is increased according to the presence of an oncoming person or a bottleneck, and the direction with the lower cost is used as the traveling direction. However, the size relationship, etc. can also be reversed. That is, even if the front cost is set higher than the costs in other directions, the idea of decreasing the cost according to the presence of an oncoming person or a bottleneck and using the direction with the higher cost as the traveling direction can be carried out in the same way.

[0048] In summary, in the present invention, the features are as follows: when a bottleneck is detected in front of the moving direction of a person during the movement processing of the person, the effect of avoiding oncoming persons is greater than usual. In addition, by increasing the cost of the position where the oncoming person is located and the position in front of the oncoming person in inverse proportion to the width of the bottleneck, the effect of avoiding oncoming persons is increased. For this purpose, it is preferable to determine all the passage widths on the path in advance before the simulation, and use the passage widths included in the field of view of the person to detect bottlenecks during the simulation. In addition, it is preferable to increase the cost of the position where the oncoming person is located and the position in front of the oncoming person in inverse proportion to the area of the impassable area within the field of view of the person, so as to enhance the effect of avoiding oncoming persons.

[0049] Embodiment 2

[0050] In Embodiment 2, the simulation method will be described. Figure 7 It shows the processing flow in the preparation stage in advance, Figure 8 It shows the processing flow during the simulation.

[0051] In Figure 7 In the initial processing step S11, the building layout is set. In processing step S12, the building equipment is set. In processing step S13, the movement of the person is set. By executing this series of processes, in processing step S14, the layout information D1 and the person model D2 are formed and stored in the storage unit respectively.

[0052] In processing step S15, it is judged whether to perform passage fragmentation processing. If so, in processing step S16, the passage fragmentation processing is executed to determine the lateral width. Then, in processing step S17, the position determined to be a bottleneck is identified and stored in the layout information D1.

[0053] In addition, in the following Figure 7 , Figure 8 The processing flow adopts the processing flow of two groups of bottleneck detection methods. Therefore, when only one of the bottleneck detection methods is adopted, it is only necessary to appropriately delete the judgment process of whether to perform passage fragmentation processing in processing steps S15 and S23.

[0054] In Figure 8 which is the processing during the simulation, the layout information D1 and the person model D2 of the environment where the crowd flow processing is initially performed in processing step S21 are obtained. In processing step S22, the repetitive processing is executed while changing the person model M1 or the processing time during the period until processing step S30. In addition, the layout is determined according to the environment.

[0055] In the repeated processing, in processing step S23, it is judged whether the fragmentation processing has been completed. If it has not been completed, the bottleneck identification processing based on the field of view is executed in processing step S24. If it has been completed and after executing processing step S24, the process proceeds to the processing of processing step S25.

[0056] In the processing of processing step S25, the current state is judged according to the presence of the oncoming person M2 and the confirmation state of the bottleneck for the selected person model M1. Thus, it is classified into three modes: normal time (no bottleneck, no oncoming person), oncoming person detection state, and oncoming person detection and bottleneck state.

[0057] In normal time, the cost in the forward direction is set lower than that in other directions in processing step S26. When it is detected that there is an oncoming person M2 in the forward direction of the moving direction, the cost in the forward direction is increased in processing step S28. When it is in the oncoming person detection and bottleneck state, the cost in the forward direction is greatly increased in processing step S27.

[0058] After executing the cost operation processing, the process moves to processing step S29, and the traveling direction corresponding to the cost is determined and the movement in the traveling direction determined for the person model is executed. In addition, this processing is Figure 1 the processing of the person movement execution unit 123. Processing step S30 is an end judgment processing for repetition. For the person models with the set number of persons, the above processing is repeated while changing the time during the simulation period. By also executing this repeated processing on the time axis, a time-series people flow simulation is achieved.

[0059] According to Embodiment 1 and Embodiment 2, it is possible to provide a simulation device and a simulation method that can also cope with bottlenecks and can obtain highly recognized people flow simulation results.

[0060] Symbol Explanation

[0061] 1: Simulation device, DB: Storage unit, 12: Arithmetic unit, 13: Input / output device, 14: Bus, D1: Layout information, D2: Person model, 121: Bottleneck detection unit, 122: Person movement direction determination unit, 123: Person movement execution unit, 131: Input unit, 132: Output unit (display unit).

Claims

1. A simulation device for simulating the flow of people, characterized in that, The simulation device has a storage unit and a simulated control unit. The storage unit stores layout information and a human model, and the human model holds at least destination information and current position information, where the destination information indicates where in the layout. When the control unit detects a bottleneck within a certain range in front of the moving direction of the human model, it changes the movement control of the human model starting from the situation where the bottleneck is not detected. Here, the bottleneck means that the flow of the human model is restricted.

2. The simulation device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The control unit has: A bottleneck detection unit that detects the bottleneck; A human movement direction determination unit that sets costs in multiple directions around the human model and determines the movement direction according to the magnitudes of the costs; And A human movement execution unit that moves the human model in the simulation. When the human movement direction determination unit detects an oncoming person on the path from the current position to the destination position of the human model, it changes the cost in the forward direction of the human model to a first value, and when it detects the bottleneck and detects the oncoming person on the path, it changes the cost in the forward direction of the human model to a second value.

3. The simulation device according to claim 2, characterized in that, The bottleneck detection unit saves the position information of the detected bottleneck in the storage unit, and the human movement direction determination unit refers to the position information of the bottleneck stored in the storage unit.

4. The simulation device according to claim 2, characterized in that, If the area of the region that the human model cannot intrude into within a certain range in front during the determination of the movement direction of the human model in the simulation process is above a certain area, the bottleneck detection unit detects this region as the bottleneck.

5. The simulation device according to claim 2, characterized in that, When the passage width of the human model becomes narrower due to the bottleneck, the second value is made variable according to the passage width.

6. A simulation method for simulating the flow of people, characterized in that, The simulation method has a storage method and a simulated control method. In the storage method, an arbitrary layout and a human model are stored, and the human model holds at least destination information and current position information, where the destination information indicates where in the layout. In the control method, when a bottleneck area with a narrow passage width is detected within the visual field of the human model, the effect of avoiding oncoming persons is enhanced more than usual.

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