Experimental Study of Collective Pedestrian Dynamics

Cécile Appert-Rolland; Julien Pettré; Anne-Hélène Olivier; William Warren; Aymeric Duigou-Majumdar; Etienne Pinsard; Alexandre Nicolas

doi:10.17815/CD.2020.109

Authors

Cécile Appert-Rolland Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, University Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France
Julien Pettré Inria, University Rennes, Rennes, France
Anne-Hélène Olivier Inria, University Rennes, Rennes, France
William Warren CLPS, Brown University, Providence, United States
Aymeric Duigou-Majumdar Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, University Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France
Etienne Pinsard Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques, University Paris-Saclay, Orsay, France
Alexandre Nicolas Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Modèles Statistiques, University Paris-Sud, Orsay, France

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17815/CD.2020.109

Keywords:

pedestrian dynamics, experiments, tracking, crossing flows, pattern formation, dense crowds

Abstract

We report on two series of experiments, conducted in the frame of two different collaborations designed to study how pedestrians adapt their trajectories and velocities in groups or crowds. Strong emphasis is put on the motivations for the chosen protocols and the experimental implementation. The first series deals with pattern formation, interactions between pedestrians, and decision-making in pedestrian groups at low to medium densities. In particular, we show how pedestrians adapt their headways in single-file motion depending on the (prescribed) leader’s velocity. The second series of experiments focuses on static crowds at higher densities, a situation that can be critical in real life and in which the pedestrians’ choices of motion are strongly constrained sterically. More precisely, we study the crowd’s response to its crossing by a pedestrian or a cylindrical obstacle of 74cm in diameter. In the latter case, for a moderately dense crowd, we observe displacements that quickly decay with the minimal distance to the obstacle, over a lengthscale of the order of the meter.

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