Agent-Based Simulation for Pedestrian Evacuation Behaviour Using the Affordance Concept

Simulation modelling is a necessary tool to analyse pedestrian movement behaviour in order to predict the social and collective behaviour in different situations. Psychological aspects of human behaviour in interacting with the environment is the critical point in the pedestrian simulation context. The affordance theory originated from psychology and humanities is a key concept to address this issue and model the relationship between an agent and his/her environment. This study aims to introduce a prototype of an agent-based model using the affordance concept to simulate the decision-making process during an evacuation. The proposed approach was tested to model the behaviour of evacuees in a platform of a subway station through both normal and emergencies. The results of the test including the evacuation time and flows toward different scenarios, showed that the model can work properly. The proposed approach can yield a useful tool for designers to mention pedestrian movement behaviour in their building designs.