Journal Title: Social Potential Models for Modeling

Traffic and Transportation

Modeling traffic and transportation
requires consideration of how
individuals move in a given
environment. There are three
general aspects to consider when
looking at movement: reactive
behaviors, cognitive behaviors and
constraints due to environmental
factors. Individual drivers and
pedestrians have a general way of
dealing with certain situations,
some of which comes from
experience and some from
personality. In this situation, there
is generally only one specific
response for any given agent. In
other situations, one needs to
allow an individual to choose from
a set of various possible decisions
based on how they affect
movement and path planning. A
final consideration is how the
environment will constrain the
general movement of the
individual. Much of an individuals
movement, especially when
driving a vehicle, is reactive. This
is due to the fact that most actions
are reactions to the conditions of
the road and events which are
occurring nearby.
This is similar to pedestrian
movement since walking becomes
routine for people. Individuals do
not think about every step that
they are going to make and every
possible outcome, they simply
step forward and know the general
outcomes they expect. When
things deviate from the expected,
then their movements are
adjusted. Individuals transporting
cargo, have a defined origin and
destination which requires some
decision making such as route
planning. There is a goal they are
trying to reach, and decisions are
made along the way to achieve
this goal. We will refer to these as
cognitive behaviors, due to the
fact that they take some conscious
thought to achieve the goal.
Techniques of path planning,
seeking or organization can be
used to represent these choices.
The final aspect of movement is
the definition of the environment.
The individuals need to know
where obstacles are and how they
interact with them
in order to avoid collisions and
other unwanted contact. In multi-
agent systems there are
numerous techniques which can
be used to describe how each
agent makes decisions and
moves, such as Genetic
Programming, Reinforced
Learning, Case Based Reasoning,
Rules Based Reasoning, Game
Theory, Neural Network, Context
Based Reasoning, Cellular
Automata, and SP. The two
primary techniques which are
used to represent the decisions of
individuals in pedestrian
simulations are Cellular Automata
and SP.This chapter will focus on
SP techniques for modeling and
how to use it to represent
individuals desires and
movements during a simulation. A
description of the technique is
given along with a detailed
example of constructing a model
from scratch. This will give some
insight into the elements of the
technique and the process which
must be taken to use it effectively.
There are a few commonly used
models which represent
pedestrian movement: Flocking
(Reynolds, 1987), HMFV (Helbing,
2002), and
LKF (Lakoba, 2005). A brief
description of these models will be
given along with the forces which
are used in the model. Then
cognitive behaviors will be
discussed which can be added to
any of the existing models to
create specific desired movements
in the individuals. Next, a
description of different techniques
used to interact with the
environment is given. We then
conclude by looking at how to
apply this technique to more than
individuals movements.



Journal (from Simple Example)
Simple Example
Consider searching for a place to
eat when visiting a new location.
This would have to be a place
where you have never been
before therefore you have no
previous knowledge of the location
of possible places to eat. Now
assume that you intend to find a
place by wandering around; in this
way you will also get to know the
area. What factors are going to be
important to you?
1. Desire to stay close to the hotel,
or where you are staying.
2. Attraction to visible restaurants.
3. Slight repulsion from other
individuals.
4. Repulsion from crowded
restaurants.
These four factors are identified as
the causes for the movements of
the individual. Assuming that there
are no constraints on where you
can walk (no walls or buildings)
then there is a simple set of rules
governing the movement. These
rules are built as a set of forces
representing the previously

Cognitive behavior forces are
forces that can be added to the
individual to create specific
directional choices. These are
things like wandering, seeking,
following a path, or following a
wall. They are considered
cognitive behavioral forces due to
the fact that the individual is
making a decision using these
forces; they are not purely reactive
style forces. Wander is sometimes
referred to as a random walk. This
type of force is generally needed
in order to keep an individual from
walking in a perfectly straight line.
Basically it creates small
deviations from the path the
individual would otherwise take
(Reynolds, 1999). One method of
applying this technique is to
choose a small maximum angle (q
max) of deviation inside of which
one would place an artificial
attraction point and then add the
force from the attraction point to
the other forces acting on the
individual (Figure 1). The strength
of the force can be adjusted by
choosing the distance (d) the
artificial attraction point is placed
from the center of the individual.

The environment is a collection of
geometric objects the individual
must interact with, usually by
avoiding them. The following are
obstacles found in the simulation
that define the environment in
which individuals must maneuver.
Obstacles
An obstacle should have an
external shape described in some
manner such that the distance to
points on it can be found. Also,
obstacles should have a center. It
is best to keep the definition of the
obstacles to simple structures like
rectangles and circles. Using
pixilation principles defined for
computer graphics, it is
reasonably easy to represent all
possible shapes by these two
primitive structures (Pineda,
1988).






SP techniques are very useful in
describing the movements of
individuals. The procedures
described have been used to
implement various models and to
look at how individuals might be
expected to react to given
environments. However, it can
easily be expanded and applied to
individuals driving a car, riding a
bicycle, etc. Recently Majid Ali
Khan, Damla Turgut and Ladislau
Blni (Khan 2008) have
demonstrated the use of the SP
technique for simulating trucks
driving in highway convoys. The
mathematics of the models
presented has been condensed,
where needed, to allow for simpler
implementations and easier
understanding of the process of
the SP techniques. These
simplifications allowed
relationships between interactions
with obstacles and with other
individuals to be apparent and
quickly defined. Anytime
individuals are in control of their
movement and need to make
decisions while simultaneously
being constrained by the
environment, SP models can be
constructed to represent
how individuals would tend to
move. Environments representing
exiting rooms, walking in hallways,
exiting gated areas, and
wandering in a room have been
visualized and simulated using this
technique. By adding new
parameters to existing models,
ages and certain social
characteristics were represented
(Jaganthan, 2007; Kaup, 2006;
Kaup, 2007). This has allowed the
exploration of how environmental
changes can affect different types
of individuals. Differing exit
strategies have been studied to
see if environmental factors can
be used to increase the efficiency
of an exit. All of these results
demonstrate the usefulness and
applicability of the procedures
described for the SP technique. It
also provides the possibility of
eventually testing and validating
social interaction theories. Given
any theory, one could directly
model that theory by programming
a simulation so that the agents
would respond per that theory.
Then by running the simulation,
one could observe what social
structure(s) would arise.