Passenger Cooperative Guidance System for Urban Rail Transit Stations

Guidance is very important to improve the operational efficiency of urban rail transit stations (URTSs) and ensure the safety of passengers. Cooperation among different guidance modes can not only reduce the operational cost of the URTSs but also benefit the organization of passenger flow in the station. This paper presents a framework of passenger cooperative guidance systems under the influence of three guidance modes, i.e., the leader, sign and broadcasting. The cooperative guidance scheme is formulated by considering the cost and efficiency of different guidance modes. We also propose a modified social force model to investigate crowd dynamics taking into account the influence of leaders, signs, and broadcasting. A case study of passenger evacuation simulations at a URTS is conducted to evaluate the performance of the cooperative guidance scheme. Simulation results show that cooperation among different guidance modes can improve passenger evacuation efficiency and the utilization ratio of exits.