07.11.06
Consortium Meeting in Manchester, UK
Project Description
AVATARS is an ambitious project to create software tools that allow the testing and validating of terminal designs by using simulation of the circulation movements of passengers.
Current rail transport infrastructure design is led by aesthetics and prescriptive regulations. This is a problem in passenger intensive operations, where performance and comfort are major issues. Better terminal design would provide increased passenger throughput and less overcrowding but it is very difficult to design for performance without accurate simulation tools. Existing tools are available to simulate passenger evacuation but none have been developed that can incorporate both evacuation and general circulation movements.
The AVATARS Approach
AVATARS will develop a range of innovative technologies to allow the simulation of passenger movements in and around rail terminals during emergencies and during normal circulation behaviour. The tools, based around the buildingEXODUS evacuation software produced by the University of Greenwich, will enable designers to populate structures with large groups of realistic, interacting agents and follow their movements through a series of pre-defined, realistic scenarios. This technology will allow building and infrastructure design to be tested for passenger comfort and convenience at the design stage.
In order to achieve this, AVATARS will develop three major software components. The first will look at agent interaction, specifically their interaction with each other and with their environment. The second component will develop a tool to rapidly generate realistic test scenarios, in order to speed up and simplify simulation runs. The third tool will assist users in isolating the cause of any problem within the terminal design.
Case Studies
The evaluation of the developments will be carried out under a series of case studies, developed throughout the project. These will take real-world information from operating terminals and trains and produce complex, multi-event scenarios capable of evaluating the abilities of the AVATARS software.
Avatars Goals
The principal objective of AVATARS is to develop a simulation tool that will provide designers with a useful performance measure for train station designs. The designers will in turn be able to improve their design based on this feedback. The improvement of a terminal design can be measured in four ways:
- Improvement in the station’s ability to function in unusual or emergency situations.
- Improvement of station capacity. This will be determined through the application of the simulation tool in order to modify the structural design and the procedures applied in order to eliminate/reduce the occurrence of dangerous levels of congestion.
- The ability of the terminal operators to organize the movement of those using the terminal, so as to provide easy means of access to the station while exposing people to the facilities available.
- Reduction in the number of negative emotions experienced by passengers, by allowing them easier access to the facilities they need and expediting their journey through the station.