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Pedestrian trajectories on a 90° turn in a corridor: A non-immersive virtual reality study.

Correa, Leidy Marcela LU (2021) In LUTVDG/TVBB VBRM05 20211
Division of Fire Safety Engineering
Abstract
When an emergency occurs, bottlenecks can emerge at the corners of corridors. Therefore, it is essential to understand how people move through complex geometries during evacuation to improve architectural designs. Virtual Reality (VR) is a versatile tool used for evacuation research since it allows to replicate evacuation routes easily, with high levels of experimental control. These advantages are helpful to study pedestrian trajectories, which are particularly crucial in the context of emergency situations. Nevertheless, validation efforts are still ongoing. Therefore, comparing results in laboratory experiments to the outputs in Virtual Reality experiments is a way to study the validity of the VR research method.

The present project... (More)
When an emergency occurs, bottlenecks can emerge at the corners of corridors. Therefore, it is essential to understand how people move through complex geometries during evacuation to improve architectural designs. Virtual Reality (VR) is a versatile tool used for evacuation research since it allows to replicate evacuation routes easily, with high levels of experimental control. These advantages are helpful to study pedestrian trajectories, which are particularly crucial in the context of emergency situations. Nevertheless, validation efforts are still ongoing. Therefore, comparing results in laboratory experiments to the outputs in Virtual Reality experiments is a way to study the validity of the VR research method.

The present project replicates in a non-immersive Virtual Reality experiment referred to as Single VR experiment, a laboratory experiment by Keip & Ries (2009). People walked alone through a corridor with a 90° turn. Additionally, a second VR experiment (Multi VR experiment) examined how the presence of virtual agents (VA) in the virtual environment (VE) could influence individuals' travel path.
The trajectories obtained by Keip & Ries (2009) and the Single VR experiment were compared. The results showed certain similarities between both experiments concerning the travel path pattern. Differences were also identified, as individuals were more prone to walk closer to the inner wall after the corner in the Laboratory experiment. Furthermore, signs of social influence were difficult to observe in the Multi VR experiment.

The trajectories obtained by Keip & Ries (2009) and the Single VR experiment were compared. The results showed certain similarities between both experiments concerning the travel path pattern. Differences were also identified, as individuals were more prone to walk closer to the inner wall after the corner in the Laboratory experiment. Furthermore, signs of social influence were difficult to observe in the Multi VR experiment. (Less)
Popular Abstract
USING VIRTUAL REALITY TO STUDY HOW PEOPLE MOVE.
Leidy Marcela Correa Prieto

When an emergency occurs, bottlenecks can emerge at the corners of corridors. Bottlenecks can be compared to traffic jams, that happens when a considerable number of vehicles are close together on a road and the space is not enough to allow them to move. A similar situation could occur when people move through complex geometries such corridors with corners. Just consider that a fire happens, and people need to evacuate a building through a corridor with a 90° turn. It is not as easy as walking straight, it is needed to make turning maneuvers which require more control of the movement. And if there are a lot of people moving at the same time, it would be more... (More)
USING VIRTUAL REALITY TO STUDY HOW PEOPLE MOVE.
Leidy Marcela Correa Prieto

When an emergency occurs, bottlenecks can emerge at the corners of corridors. Bottlenecks can be compared to traffic jams, that happens when a considerable number of vehicles are close together on a road and the space is not enough to allow them to move. A similar situation could occur when people move through complex geometries such corridors with corners. Just consider that a fire happens, and people need to evacuate a building through a corridor with a 90° turn. It is not as easy as walking straight, it is needed to make turning maneuvers which require more control of the movement. And if there are a lot of people moving at the same time, it would be more difficult to evacuate. That is why is important to study and understand how people move through 90° turning corridors to improve architectural designs or to design evacuation plans efficiently.

HOW CAN WE STUDY HOW PEOPLE MOVE THROUGH 90° TURNING CORRIDORS?
Using established research methods such as laboratory studies, case studies, drills, hypothetical studies. Additionally, those studies can be complemented by using Virtual Reality as a research tool. Virtual Reality (VR) allows exposing participants to scenarios that have been replicated easily in virtual environments. Then, participants’ behavior can be analyzed within specific scenarios. This study performed experiments using non-immersive VR, which means that participants were exposed to the virtual environment (VE) through a computer screen.

To consider the results of VR experiments as valid, it is required to confirm that the results are correct, and that they are close to the reality. One way to prove that the results are accurate is to compare them to outputs of previous laboratory studies. One of the goals of this study was to compare the results of a laboratory experiment performed in 2009 with the results of a virtual replica of that experiment (Single VR experiment). The experiments consisted of participants walking through a 90° turning corridor.

CRAWLING BEFORE WALKING
Although I mentioned that bottlenecks can emerge when a lot of people evacuate at the same time through angled corridors, this study focused on the pedestrians’ trajectories when walking alone through a 90° turning corridor. This may be considered as basic experiments, but if it is not understood how people move alone; then, analyzing how people move in crowds may be more challenging. The results between both experiments (laboratory experiment and Single VR experiment) showed certain similarities concerning the participants travel path pattern. Differences were also identified, as individuals were more prone to walk closer to the inner wall of the corridor after the corner in the Laboratory experiment.

DO PEOPLE FOLLOW VIRTUAL AGENTS IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS?
individuals’ psychological processes are impacted by how others behave, which means that there could be certain situations that people follow or avoid what others do. For instance, when someone sees that a group of people on the street is looking at the sky, then the person starts looking also at the sky too. This could be cataloged as a kind of social influence. Then, a second VR experiment (Multi VR experiment) was performed to observe if the presence of virtual agents (VA) in the virtual environment (VE) could influence individuals' travel path. The results showed that signs of social influence were difficult to observe in the Multi VR experiment. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Correa, Leidy Marcela LU
supervisor
organization
course
VBRM05 20211
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Virtual Reality, Social Influence, Trajectories, Evacuation, Corridors.
publication/series
LUTVDG/TVBB
report number
5642
other publication id
LUTVDG/TVBB—5642—SE
language
English
id
9048953
date added to LUP
2021-06-04 08:37:58
date last changed
2021-06-04 08:37:58
@misc{9048953,
  abstract     = {{When an emergency occurs, bottlenecks can emerge at the corners of corridors. Therefore, it is essential to understand how people move through complex geometries during evacuation to improve architectural designs. Virtual Reality (VR) is a versatile tool used for evacuation research since it allows to replicate evacuation routes easily, with high levels of experimental control. These advantages are helpful to study pedestrian trajectories, which are particularly crucial in the context of emergency situations. Nevertheless, validation efforts are still ongoing. Therefore, comparing results in laboratory experiments to the outputs in Virtual Reality experiments is a way to study the validity of the VR research method.

The present project replicates in a non-immersive Virtual Reality experiment referred to as Single VR experiment, a laboratory experiment by Keip & Ries (2009). People walked alone through a corridor with a 90° turn. Additionally, a second VR experiment (Multi VR experiment) examined how the presence of virtual agents (VA) in the virtual environment (VE) could influence individuals' travel path.
The trajectories obtained by Keip & Ries (2009) and the Single VR experiment were compared. The results showed certain similarities between both experiments concerning the travel path pattern. Differences were also identified, as individuals were more prone to walk closer to the inner wall after the corner in the Laboratory experiment. Furthermore, signs of social influence were difficult to observe in the Multi VR experiment.

The trajectories obtained by Keip & Ries (2009) and the Single VR experiment were compared. The results showed certain similarities between both experiments concerning the travel path pattern. Differences were also identified, as individuals were more prone to walk closer to the inner wall after the corner in the Laboratory experiment. Furthermore, signs of social influence were difficult to observe in the Multi VR experiment.}},
  author       = {{Correa, Leidy Marcela}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  series       = {{LUTVDG/TVBB}},
  title        = {{Pedestrian trajectories on a 90° turn in a corridor: A non-immersive virtual reality study.}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}