Study of the Influence of an Obstacle on the Evacuation Behavior Using Multi-Agent Simulation where the Intimate Space around each Agent is Considered

In this study, we constructed a continuous space simulation model for an evacuation in which the evacuees are represented by agents. The agents are designed to be self-driven and have intimate spaces around their bodies. An agent recognizes an exit and drives itself towards it while maintaining its distance from other agents. When a bottleneck occurs around an exit, the intimate space around the agent is reduced into its body and the agent can drive itself through the bottleneck to the exit. Using this model, we examined the influence of the placement of an obstacle on the outflow of the evacuees. The results suggest that the best position of an obstacle depends on the size of the exit.