An extended cost potential field cellular automaton model for pedestrian evacuation considering the restriction of visual field.

Abstract Pedestrian dynamics with affected visual field under emergency situation is a difficult point in the simulation of pedestrian flow. In this paper, an extended cost potential field cellular automaton model is proposed to investigate the motion of pedestrians through obscure room lack of visibility (due to smoke, darkness, etc.). A novel visibility function is introduced to describe visual effect caused by poor vision, which will lead to the increasing cost of discomfort. The numerical simulations are performed to explore the effects of factors, such as psychology tension, visual radius and pedestrian density on pedestrian evacuation. It was found that evacuation time relies on visual radius and initial density. The evacuation time under affected visual field increases with the decrease of visual radius. At low density, a moderate tension degree can improve the evacuation efficiency. These findings will be helpful in pedestrian control and management under an emergency. Highlights • An extended cost potential CA model describing the restriction of visual field is presented. • A visibility function is introduced to describe visual effect. • The extended cost function is related to three factors: density, behavior variation and visual effect. • Evacuation time relies on visual radius and initial density. • A moderate tension degree can improve the evacuation efficiency at low density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]