Simulation Study of the Spiral Motion of Pedestrians: A Cellular Automata Approach

When the pedestrians share the same objectives moving toward the same direction, huge congestion is often created in some regions. The pedestrians lose mobility in the congestion and subsequently create a deadlock phenomenon. This study considers an event that pedestrians rotate around and moves toward a central object. The pedestrian motion is modelled by use of Cellular Automata (CA) to analyse how the congestion at centre region is developed. The model is implemented in hexagonal lattice with static floor fields in polar coordinate. Interaction of rotational and centripetal mobility generates the spiral motions of the pedestrian. In this study, various simulations are carried out to investigate the effect of model parameters and macroscopic properties. The pedestrian motion creates high density area at centre region and the density gradually decreases toward outside. The radial distribution of the circumferential density characterises the pedestrian flow, such that a deadlock occurs at the inner region and a free flow occurs at the outer region. Moreover a possible solution for easing the deadlock is also suggested in this paper.