Representational Framework for Pedestrian Movement Simulation in a School Environment

This paper presents some techniques developed in order to explore the relationship between school design and pupil movement outside of formal teaching activity. In this context, the paper presents the development of techniques suitable for use in this application. The process has to be appropriate to school design and to have as its aim the accurate prediction of crowding in the proposed design. A number of ways of representing the spatial layout of a school building will be evaluated and a technique used in robot navigation will be proposed as being the most suitable for the above stated purpose. The aim is to integrate configurational analysis with agent-based modelling techniques through a representation that allows for multiple assumptions.

Ultimately the desire is to evaluate how cognitive assumptions of spatial navigation will affect the outcome of OD models aimed at predicting crowding. The paper considers various techniques of spatial representation, simulation and network analysis and proposes a way of combining these in a new way for use in pedestrian movement consultancy in schools.