In this talk we consider mathematical models and methods recently developed to control crowd dynamics, with particular emphasis on egressing pedestrians in unknown environment. We focus on special agents, called leaders, to steer the crowd towards the desired direction. Leaders can be either hidden in the crowd or recognizable as such. This strategy heavily relies on the power of the social influence (herding effect), namely the natural tendency of people to follow group mates in situations of emergency or doubt. Control strategies are designed in order to reduce as much as possible the intervention on the crowd. Ideally the natural behaviour of people is kept, and people do not even realize they are being led by an external intelligence. Mathematical models are discussed at different scales of observation, showing how macroscopic (fluid-dynamic) models can be derived by mesoscopic (kinetic) models which, in turn, can be derived by microscopic (agent-based) models.
This video was produced by the SITE Research Center at New York University, as part of their talk series.
