Experimental Study on the Factors Affecting Pedestrian Exit Selection on the Basis of the Mixed Reality Evacuation LVC Simulation System

Abstract

Evacuation rules for pedestrians in emergencies are of great significance for the design of building exits, exit management, and evacuation facilities. Based on the mixed reality evacuation LVC simulation system we developed, in this paper, three kinds of pedestrian exit selection experiments were carried out, in which the influence of distance and exit selection on pedestrian exit selection was studied. In line with common sense, during the single-factor control tests, the participants preferred the exit with fewer people and at a closer distance. The two-factor combined effect of the above two factors was also studied. It can be found that the participants preferred to choose the least crowded exit with a closer distance for evacuation. Among these two factors, the participants would give priority to the number of people at the exit. In addition, participants show different trajectories for the difference in the number of people at the two exits. Their walking trajectory was close to an arc line in the case of an equal number of people at two exits. The results of this paper provide a theoretical basis for research on designing evacuation facilities and guiding evacuees, and allows us to explore a new approach for mixed reality evacuation research by conducting virtual crowd experiments in a real environment.