Crowd Modeling and Simulation: The Role of Multi-agent Simulation in Design Support Systems

The paper presents a Multi Agent Systems (MAS) approach to crowd modelling, based on the Situated Cellular Agents (SCA) model. This is a special class of Multilayered Multi Agent Situated System (MMASS), a model providing an explicit representation of the environment which has a relevant role in supplying agents a context allowing them to act and interact (among themselves and with the environment). The paper will briefly introduce the model and a methodology for the analysis of a crowd scenario and the design of SCA based crowd simulations. The adoption of this kind of system allows evaluating an architectural design with reference to the behaviour of pedestrian that will act in it, given a behavioural specification for these entities. The system is also able to produce a realistic visualization of the simulation, in order to facilitate the communication with involved actors (e.g. in case of participatory decisions).