#A non-deterministic multi-agent approach for emergency evacuation simulation

An emergency evacuation implies moving a group of people away from a life-threatening hazard. The efficiency with which the population evacuates is crucial for minimizing the number of fatalities and injuries. Evacuating a population is not, however, a straightforward process. Different people behave diversly in face of a threat, thus knowing how these behaviours affect the overall operation is necessary for defining an efficient evacuation plan. Individual psychological and physical attributes, such as area knowledge, altruism, mobility, panic, patience and dependency, influence the behaviour and may vary over time.

Techniques for analyzing the evacuation of an environment include fluid mechanics and automata. These approaches, however, fail to take into account the human nature of the evacuees. Therefore, in this project, a proof of concept was developed which simulates an emergency evacuation, making use of a multi-agent system model.

This approach allows the definition of various possible behaviours for the individuals in the population, namely: screaming, requesting help, helping, requesting directions, providing directions and moving. Each of these behaviours is influenced by the attributes mentioned earlier, while also afecting these same attributes for themselves or the people around them.

With this proof of concept, it is possible to observe the evacuation process and the variations on the average of each attribute of the entire population in real time, allowing the user to analyze how the behaviours affect the overall evacuation time and the fatality count. The user can specify the configuration of the scenario, where the values for each individual's attributes can be defined. It is also possible to specify the environment, through the configuration of the number of exits and obstacles, as well as their respective location.