Development of a system to steer crowds through imperceptible modifications of the surrounding environment
| Project/Area Number |
20K14992
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Review Section |
Basic Section 25020:Safety engineering-related
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
Feliciani Claudio 東京大学, 先端科学技術研究センター, 特任准教授 (40870035)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2022)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,290,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥990,000)
Fiscal Year 2022: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
Fiscal Year 2020: ¥2,340,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥540,000)
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| Keywords | crowd / swarm / collective behavior / emergent behavior / complex systems / environment / nudge / steering / soldier crab / light / soundscape / self-organization / behavior / color / sound / cognition / animal behavior |
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| Outline of Research at the Start |
This research aims at creating a control strategy for pedestrian traffic able to influence the motion of crowds in an imperceptible way through subtle changes of the surrounding environment. Color, light intensity, optical/sound effects or a combination of them will be investigated as potential steering methods.
To help understanding the interaction between human crowds and the surrounding environment, two species of animals showing very peculiar characteristics will be also studied: soldier crabs' swarm adaption in regard to moving light and the behavior of bees in relation to nest relocation.
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
This research aimed to understand whether it is possible to influence crowd motion by using minor environmental stimuli (light, color, etc.). It has been found that, in a limited extent, such an approach is possible. However, both crowd density and interaction time (with the environment) play an important role. Furthermore, a density which allows interactions between people is needed and time must be long enough to allow the emergence of self-organization.
The conclusions could be obtained through several experiments and by examining old data through intuitions found while working on this research. An experiment unsuccessfully attempted to steer individuals in a familiar environment. But, experiments with animals swarms helped providing some hints on conditions where steering may work. Results showed that at medium densities optimal steering found. By revisiting old experiments it was hinted that, in controlled conditions, interaction between people is needed for an effective steering.
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
This research has helped showing that unconventional ways to steer people are viable. In addition, it also showed that by working on areas of research which are different and complementary (human crowds and animal swarms here) can help to create a robust theory and formulate more likely hypotheses.
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Report
(4 results)
Research Products
(32 results)
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[Presentation] Crowd congestion number2021
Author(s)
Francesco Zanlungo, Claudio Feliciani, Zeynep Yucel, Katsuhiro Nishinari and Takayuki Kanda
Organizer
International Conference on Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics (PED2021)
Related Report
Int'l Joint Research
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