Lane Formation Beyond Intuition Towards an Automated Characterization of Lanes in Counter-flows

Authors

  • Luca Crociani Complex Systems and Artificial Intelligence research center, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy
  • Giuseppe Vizzari Complex Systems and Artificial Intelligence research center, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy
  • Andrea Gorrini Complex Systems and Artificial Intelligence research center, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy
  • Stefania Bandini Complex Systems and Artificial Intelligence research center, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy and Research Center on Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17815/CD.2020.29

Keywords:

pedestrian dynamics, lane formation, analysis, clustering

Abstract

Pedestrian behavioural dynamics have been growingly investigated by means of (semi)automated computing techniques for almost two decades, exploiting advancements on computing power, sensor accuracy and availability, computer vision algorithms. This has led to a unique consensus on the existence of significant difference between unidirectional and bidirectional flows of pedestrians, where the phenomenon of lane formation seems to play a major role. The collective behaviour of lane formation emerges in condition of variable density and due to a self-organisation dynamic, for which pedestrians are induced to walk following preceding persons to avoid and minimize conflictual situations. Although the formation of lanes is a well-known phenomenon in this field of study, there is still a lack of methods offering the possibility to provide an (even semi-) automatic identification and a quantitative characterization. In this context, the paper proposes an unsupervised learning approach for an automatic detection of lanes in multi-directional pedestrian flows, based on the DBSCAN clustering algorithm. The reliability of the approach is evaluated through an inter-rater agreement test between the results achieved by a human coder and by the algorithm.

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Published

27.03.2020

How to Cite

Crociani, L., Vizzari, G., Gorrini, A., & Bandini, S. (2020). Lane Formation Beyond Intuition Towards an Automated Characterization of Lanes in Counter-flows. Collective Dynamics, 5, 25–32. https://doi.org/10.17815/CD.2020.29

Issue

Section

Proceedings of Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics 2018