Wall-following behaviour during evacuation under limited visibility: experiment and modelling

Abstract

Wall-following is an important means for pedestrians to navigate during evacuation under limited visibility. Empirical and experimental results regarding wall-following behaviour are scarce in the literature. How pedestrians approach a wall, how they decide on a wall-following direction, and how they address conflicts are still poorly understood. To these ends, we performed evacuation experiments in a mock room. Each participant wore a baseball cap covered with an opaque veil to create a limited visibility condition. Experiment results showed the participants stretched out their arms and attempted to search for the wall tactually in 205 of 270 cases, and in the remaining cases, the participants searched for the wall visually rather than tactually. The findings also reveal underlying behaviour pattern of pedestrians on the decision of wall-following direction. Finally, we propose a wall-following model based on the social force model. The simulation results are consistent with the experimental outcomes.