Prospects for the Design of Cognitive Systems that Manage the Movement of Large Crowds

Abstract

Environmental uncertainties and the complexities of human behavior create challenges in the design of adaptive crowd management systems. The authors suggest a computer-assisted management system based on principles of cognitive systems engineering, including distributed decision-making agents with variable goals, and feedback loops that facilitate adaptation. A computer-based tactical crowd advisor uses a behavioral model to suggest actions to the crowd manager based on the behavioral model’s predictions of crowd movement. The crowd manager instructs security personnel and pedestrians, and observes the results, thus completing a feedback loop. An agent-based simulation is used to generate behavioral input so that the expected effects of physical and procedural features of alternative proposed systems. The basic principles of the cognitive systems approach adopted herein are illustrated using examples from an investigatory report of the Presidential Inauguration in Washington D.C. in January of 2009.