SUMS: Sutherland -- Pedestrian dynamics, or: Why you want to punch slow moving people in the back of the head

Duncan Sutherland is perpetually irritated by annoying pedestrians
getting in his way. To understand the mathematics behind modelling
pedestrian dynamics, he consulted google and found the following
paper: Burstedde, C. et al. ’Simulation of pedestrian dynamics using a
two-dimensional cellular automaton’, Physica A, (2001) 507-525, which
he decided to discuss in a SUMS talk. This talk will introduce the
basic concepts of cellular automata, and will discuss the model of
Burstedde et al. A pedestrian is modelled as a particle which makes a
transition between cells with some probability p_ij. The most
interesting feature of Burstedde’s model is the concept of a floor
field. The floor field modifies the probabilty p_ij. A static floor
field is used to model topological features such as walls and doors,
and also features which are attractive or repulsive to pedestrians,
such as emergency exits or fires. A dynamic floor field changes with
the pedestrian flow and is used to model long range interactions.