A Local Behavior Model for Small Pedestrian Groups

Simulating the local behavior of small pedestrian groups among a crowd is an emerging problem. Small groups are commonly found in general crowds and their behavior are significantly distinguished from that of individual pedestrians. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to simulate the walking behavior of such small groups. We construct dynamic group formations which not only facilitate easy communication between members within the same group but also adapt to the environment constraint. Moreover, an extended collision avoidance algorithm based on Optimal Reciprocal Collision Avoidance (ORCA) is proposed taking into account the factors of group cohesion and reaction flexibility so as to generate diverse interaction behavior between walkers. Several examples demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.