The Diminishing Returns of Adding Exits in Crowd Evacuation Simulations

Sammanfattning: A commonly researched problem in computer science considers the different parameters of an evacuation simulation and how they affect evacuation times. Parameters like room size, obstacles and exit layouts have proven to have an impact on evacuation times. Previous research indicates that evacuation times are not always reduced when adding exits to virtual environments, suggesting diminishing returns of adding exits in crowd evacuation simulations. This raises the question if it is always advantageous to add exits with the goal of reducing evacuation times, and if the effectiveness of adding exits is dependent on factors like room size and layout. This thesis investigates the changes in evacuation times obtained by adding exits to virtual furnished environments using an agent- based orderly crowd simulator developed in Unity3D. The virtual environments used are modeled after three classrooms at The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH): a small classroom (E34), a medium sized classroom (D32) and a large classroom (Q33). The models are modified to accommodate one through six exits with the goal of determining if there are diminishing returns of adding exits in different crowd evacuation scenarios. The results indicate that diminishing returns in crowd evacuation times occur when adding exits to virtual rooms. Diminishing returns seem to appear at different points depending on the size and/or layout of the virtual rooms, appearing at higher exit amounts the larger the room is. Several limitations could have affected the results, which means that more research within the field is required before the findings are used in real world applications.