A review of behavior mechanisms and crowd evacuation animation in emergency exercises

Emergency exercises are an efficient approach for preventing serious damage and harm, including loss of life and property and a wide range of adverse social effects, during various public emergencies. Among various factors affecting the value of emergency exercises, including their design, development, conduct, evaluation, and improvement planning, this paper emphasizes the focal role of evacuees and their behavior. We address two concerns: What are the intrinsic reasons behind human behavior? How do we model and exhibit human behavior? We review studies investigating the mechanisms of psychological behavior and crowd evacuation animation. A comprehensive analysis of logical patterns of behavior and crowd evacuation is presented first. The interactive effects of information (objective and subjective), psychology (panic, small groups, and conflicting roles), and six kinds of behavior contribute to a more effective understanding of an emergency scene and assist in making scientific decisions. Based on these studies, a wide range of perspectives on crowd formation and evacuation animation models is summarized. Collision avoidance is underlined as a special topic. Finally, this paper highlights some of the technical challenges and key questions to be addressed by future developments in this rapidly developing field.