An FPGA implemented cellular automaton crowd evacuation model inspired by the electrostatic-induced potential fields

This paper studies the on-chip realisation of a dynamic model proposed to simulate crowd behaviour, originated from electrostatic-induced potential fields. It is based on cellular automata (CA), thus taking advantage of their inherent ability to represent sufficiently phenomena of arbitrary complexity and, additionally, to be simulated precisely by digital computers. The model combines electrostatic-induced potential fields to incorporate flexibility in the movement of pedestrians. It primarily calculates distances in an obstacle filled space based on the Euclidean metric. Furthermore, it adopts a computationally fast and efficient method to overcome trouble-inducing obstacles by shifting the moving mechanism to a potential field method based on Manhattan-distance. The hardware implementation of the model is based on FPGA logic. Initialisation of the dedicated processor takes place in collaboration with a detecting and tracking algorithm supported by cameras. The instant response of the processor provides the location of pedestrians around exits. Hardware implementation exploits the prominent feature of parallelism that CA structures inherently possess in contrast to the serial computers, thus accelerating the response of the model. Furthermore, FPGA implementation of the model is advantageous in terms of low-cost, highspeed, compactness and portability features. Finally, the processor could be used as a part of an embedded, real-time, decision support system, aiming at the efficient guidance of crowd in cases of mass egress. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.