Self-organized criticality in the exit dynamics of pedestrians using a two dimensional cellular automata

Abstract

We use cellular automata to simulate the exit dynamics of pedestrians in a two-dimensional room. We observe arching signatures of jamming and power-law behavior in the cumulative frequency with respect to the exit burst size. We show a non-intuitive decrease in throughput as we increase the door size and door separation and assert that it is due to collective slow-down observed in jamming situations. The throughput of the system decreases as the urge of a pedestrian to take a step in their forward direction increases. Self-organized criticality is found in the power-law behavior with 4/3 exponent.