SCENARIO - setting crowd events using augmented reality and artificial intelligence

Abstract

Crowd events pose numerous challenges on organisers, security personnel, and attendees who experience the event and who potentially can be at risk should an emergency arise. The research documented in this paper presents a system, SCENARIO, which aims to provide tools to aid organisers and attendees during crowd

events. The system automates the organisation of the layout of attractions, attempts to reduce crowd con- gestion and enhances attendees’ safe experience. An optimiser agent was developed to solve a variant of the

NP-Complete Facility Layout Problem to reduce congestion for venues which may include obstructions. Fur- thermore, an agent-based simulator is provided for visualising the effect of a layout on crowd flows, with the

employment of a combination of a number of path-finding techniques. Moreover, a mobile agent, deployed on a hand-held device, visually and dynamically lays out an optimised path for attendees to assist their transition to their chosen attraction making use of path-finding structures, GPS and Augmented Reality, together with on-board sensors. The results presented show that the time for the layout optimisation convergence varies depending on complexity, with satisfactory layout output. Simulations run at efficient rates and agents keep their mobile state and avoid extreme congestion.