Macroscopic and microscopic dynamics of a pedestrian cross-flow: Part II, modelling

In this work, we try to reproduce empirical results concerning the behaviour of a human crowd in a cross-flow using a hierarchy of models, which differ in the details of the body shape (using a disk-shaped body vs a more realistic elliptical shape) and in how collision avoiding is performed (using only information regarding “centre of mass” distance and velocity, or actually introducing body shape information). We verified that the most detailed model (i.e., using body shape information and an elliptical body) outperforms in a significant way the simplest one (using only centre of mass distance and velocity, and disk-shaped bodies). Furthermore, we observed that if elliptical bodies are introduced without introducing such information in collision avoidance, the performance of the model is relatively poor. Nevertheless, the difference between the different models is relevant only in describing the “tails” of the observable distributions, suggesting that the more complex models could be of practical use only in the description of high density settings. Although we did not calibrate our model in order to reproduce “stripe formation” self-organising patterns observed in the crossing area, we verified that they emerge naturally in all models.