Refined cellular automata model for Tawaf simulation

In this paper, a cellular automata (CA) model is extended to simulate the circular movements of Muslim pilgrims performing the Tawaf ritual within the Masjid Al-Haram facility in Makkah. There is scant literature on the implementation of CA in modeling circular motions. Moreover, most of the published studies do not take into account the pedestrian´s ability to select the exit route in their models. To resolve these issues, we have developed a multi-floor cellular automata model incorporated with a probabilistic neural network for determining pedestrians´ decision-making ability. The speed-density relationship of pedestrian movement is obtained by simulation, and their relationships are investigated. In addition, the effect of pedestrian density on speed during Tawaf is also studied. For validation, the results obtained from the proposed model are compared with published data. The results of simulations showed that the proposed model is capable in reproducing the similar movement behavior of Tawaf.