LiDAR-based Pedestrian-flow Analysis for Crowdedness Equalization

A highly practical use case of pedestrian-track analysis by using LiDAR is presented in this paper. Many problems arc caused by heavy crowdedness in the management of public facilities, i.e., shopping malls, airports, and so on. One solution is crowdedness equalization by controlling pedestrian flow. We conducted two experimental demonstrations at technical exhibitions to find that factors that determine pedestrian flow. Pedestrian tracks were obtained at an exhibition in 2013 by using a LiDAR-based pedestrian-tracking system first. As a result, new knowledge was gained; the layout of a technical exhibition should be designed to bend the path of a pedestrian flow toward areas where their attention is desired to be. The layout of an exhibition in 2014 was designed to bend the pedestrian path many times so that pedestrians' attention was located diversely. Therefore, pedestrian tracks were successfully obtained; as a result, it was confirmed that crowdedness was successfully equalized.