%0 Journal Article
%T Towards real
%A Gabriele Bulian
%A Gabriele Montecchiari
%A Paolo Gallina
%J Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part O: Journal of Risk and Reliability
%@ 1748-0078
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1748006X17705046
%X The analysis of the ship layout from the point of view of safe and orderly evacuation represents an important step in ship design, which can be carried out through agent-based evacuation simulation tools, typically run in batch mode. Introducing the possibility for humans to interactively participate in a simulated evacuation process together with computer-controlled agents can open a series of interesting possibilities for design, research and development. To this aim, this article presents the development of a validated agent-based evacuation simulation tool which allows real-time human participation through immersive virtual reality. The main characteristics of the underlying social-force-based modelling technique are described. The tool is verified and validated by making reference to International Maritime Organization test cases, experimental data and FDS£¿+£¿Evac simulations. The first approach for supporting real-time human participation is then presented. An initial experiment embedding immersive virtual reality human participation is described, together with outcomes regarding comparisons between human-controlled avatars and computer-controlled agents. Results from this initial testing are encouraging in pursuing the use of virtual reality as a tool to obtain information on human behaviour during evacuation
%K Agent-based simulation
%K evacuation
%K FDS£¿+£¿Evac
%K fundamental diagram
%K human participation
%K International Maritime Organization test cases
%K ship safety
%K Unity3D
%K verification and validation
%K virtual reality
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1748006X17705046