ARTICLE IN PRESS

Fire Safety Journal 44 (2009) 732740

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Fire Safety Journal

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/firesaf

A fast ow control algorithm for real-time emergency evacuation in large

indoor areas
Po-Han Chen a,, Feng Feng b
a
b

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore
Master of Engineering Graduate, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore

a r t i c l e in f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 24 November 2006
Received in revised form
28 January 2009
Accepted 20 February 2009
Available online 28 April 2009

Evacuation in an emergency is always an important issue for shopping malls, subway stations and other
populous indoor places. The purpose of evacuation is to evacuate people from the danger zone through
exits within the shortest possible time. To help evacuation missions to be carried out efciently and
effectively by rescuers, a fast evacuation approach is needed.
The proposed fast ow control algorithm in this paper calculates evacuation paths in accordance
with the oor plan (which contains detailed locations and dimensions of corridors and exit doors) and
the total number of evacuees. The calculation is based on minimum overall evacuation time and an
optimal number of evacuees assigned to each evacuation path. An example is presented at the end of
the paper to illustrate real-time implementation of the proposed fast ow control algorithm.
& 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Flow control algorithm
Real-time evacuation
Virtual reality (VR)
Augmented reality (AR)
Path-nding algorithm

1. Introduction
In a rescue evacuation system, a ow control algorithm may
play a very important role, especially when the number of
evacuees is large. As different evacuation processes have different
contexts, all the existing ow control algorithms for evacuation
have their assumptions and limitations.
Whites [1] dynamic transshipment algorithm was used in
EVACNET+, which is an interactive computer program that allows
the modeling of emergency building evacuations [2]. This model
deals with a network consisting of a set of nodes connected by
arcs. The nodes represent building components such as rooms,
halls, and stairs. The arcs represent the passageways between the
objects represented by the nodes. EVACNET+ can determine an
optimal plan to evacuate the building in a minimum amount of
time.
Another model studying the evacuation prole of a building,
SAFE-R, makes some simplication on the network model used
in EVACNET+ [3]. SAFE-R merges all source nodes lying on the
same oor into one source node to avoid overlapping of paths, by
which the time for calculating the shortest path in each loop is
decreased.
From the perspective of implementation purposes, the existing
emergency evacuation software systems can be divided into two

 Corresponding author. Tel: +65 6790 4562; fax: +65 6791 0676.

E-mail address: cphchen@ntu.edu.sg (P.-H. Chen).

0379-7112/$ - see front matter & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.resaf.2009.02.005

categories. One is mainly for simulation purposes. EXIT89 [5],

EXODUS [6], EGRESS [7], SIMULEX [8] and so on are in this
category. They provide no solution to optimization of overall
evacuation process. EVACNET+ and its variation SAFE-R are in the
other category, which can give optimal evacuation proles
through a simulation process. The network ow is optimized
using the network ow transshipment algorithm proposed by
White [1]. Whites algorithm is a dynamic program, which means
the optimal evacuation prole will be available only after a
number of stages of calculation. The computation at each stage
has very high complexity, especially when the network is very
large with a lot of nodes and arcs. The outcome of one stage will
be part of the input to the next stage. The rst step of this
algorithm is to nd out all paths from all source nodes to all exit
nodes. This step alone can be very time-consuming, which makes
this highly accurate method unsuitable for real-time evacuation
tasks. Through some observation on common building layouts, it
is found that through simplications of common indoor layouts of
buildings, a less accurate but more efcient algorithm could be
developed for real-time evacuation.
As the tasks of a real-time evacuation system are unique
compared to the existing evacuation simulation systems, the
assumptions of the proposed ow control algorithm should
be carefully scrutinized. Based on the characteristics of the
targeted populous places in this paper (e.g., shopping malls,
subway stations, campus buildings, ofce buildings, etc.),
the problem is simplied and modeled as a multiple-narrow
door (multiple-ND) problem. Two fast ow control algorithms for

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P.-H. Chen, F. Feng / Fire Safety Journal 44 (2009) 732740

Nomenclature
DC
EGi
ND
ODS
TT
TTT
WD
DCi
Doori
Li
N

dynamic capacity
evacuation group i
narrow door
optimal door subset
traversal time
total traversal time
wide door
dynamic capacity of door i
the ith exit door
(shortest) length of Pi
total number of evacuees

real-time emergency evacuation have been developed. The rst

algorithm is to be used when there is no limitation on the allowed
number of evacuation paths. The second one is to be used when
only k evacuation paths are required. The application of the
second algorithm is: If several groups of people are caught in a
collapsed building full of smoke and k rescuers are sent to the
scene to perform the rescue mission, only k evacuation paths (or
rescue paths) need to be computed. Both algorithms have been
tested in the proposed real-time evacuation system.

2. Characteristics of indoor layouts of modern buildings

2.1. Introduction
Although not mentioned explicitly in the literature, the
network ow transshipment algorithm [1] used in EVACNET+
and SAFE-R assumes that the dynamic capacities of passageways
and staircases are not affected by doors. In other words, doors are
not the bottleneck in the network ow transshipment algorithm.
This can be seen in Fig. 1, in which almost all doors between
passageways and staircases are omitted [2,3]. The dynamic
capacities of all the staircases are directly used as the input to
the algorithm. In this case, the bottleneck is on the passageway or
staircase.
However, the above assumptions in EVACNET+ and SAFE-R
may not reect real situations. Take Block N1 on the campus of
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore and most
ofce buildings for example, most exit doors are narrower than
1.20 m, but the width of the narrowest passageway is wider than
2 m. The widths of passageways and staircases are signicantly
wider than exit doors. This implies that doors would be the
bottleneck in most evacuation cases. An evacuation ow contributed by one evacuation source could fully occupy an exit
door and later ows on the same oor would have to wait until
this ow is completely evacuated. With this observation, an
assumption could be made: The bottleneck is on exit doors rather
than on passageways or staircases. This assumption could also
accommodate cases in which exit doors are as wide as or wider
than passageways or staircases by controlling the door parameters. The assumption signicantly reduces the computation
complexity of the ow control algorithm and enables the
ow control computation to provide real-time output using a
linear method instead of going through a multi-stage dynamic
program [1]. With this assumption, the proposed ow control
algorithm could become a powerful ow optimization tool for
real-time tasks compared to the existing evacuation software,
which could only be used for process simulation [58] or slow
ow planning [2,3].

Ni
ni
Pi
Td
Te
Tp
Tpi
V
Wd
Wmax
Wmin

733

number of evacuees in group i

number of evacuees in group i
path a group (group i) of evacuees takes to the
(nearest) exit door
total time needed for all evacuees of a group to go
through the exit door
total evacuation time (Te Tp+Td)
time needed to go through P (i.e., TTT)
evacuation time for path Pi
average walking speed of evacuees
width of exit door
maximum passageway width of building
minimum passageway width of building

2.2. Preliminary denitions

Before discussing frequently appearing indoor layouts and
relevant ow control problems, some denitions should be
introduced. They appear frequently in emergency evacuation
literature and should facilitate the discussion later.
2.2.1. Nodes and arcs
A network consists of a set of points (nodes) connected by line
segments (arcs). Nodes are used to describe locations, such as
rooms, corridors, stairs, halls, etc. Arcs represent the travel paths
between two nodes. An arc is a passageway through which
occupants traverse.
2.2.2. Traversal time (TT)
Traversal time (TT) is the amount of time(s) required to pass
through the length of an arc. In our algorithm, traversal time is
obtained by dividing an arc length by the average walking speed
of people. Traversal time depends upon the age, gender and the
number of people in the context of study as well as upon the
environment of the travel path. Some human behavior research
analyzed experimental data on pedestrian movement in linear
channels and suggested some formulas to calculate traversal time
in certain situations [4]. The results of the human behavior
research serve as a good reference to this paper. The traversal time
(TT) for a complete evacuation path, which consists of a series of
connected arcs, is called the total traversal time (TTT) of the path.
2.2.3. Dynamic capacity (DC)
Dynamic capacity is the number of people passing through any
given point of an arc per unit of time. An arcs DC is directly
proportional to its width. The unit of DC is persons/s.
2.3. Wide doors (WD) and narrow doors
There are a variety of exit doors that differ in shape and size.
Through observation, most exit doors can be divided into two
categories based on the relative width, which is the ratio of the
width of an exit door to that of its connected passageway. The
width of an exit door is denoted by Wd in the following discussion.
In a building, different passageways may have different widths.
The maximum passageway width of a building is denoted by Wmax
and the minimum passageway width of the same building is
denoted by Wmin. One category of exit door has the width much
less than Wmin. Take Block N1 of Nanyang Technological University
for example, Wmin is greater than 1.8 m, but a standard exit door is
only 0.8 m wide. This type of exit door, whose width is equal to or
less than Wmin, is dened as a narrow door. The other category of
exit doors has width greater than Wmax. These exit doors, dened

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P.-H. Chen, F. Feng / Fire Safety Journal 44 (2009) 732740

Fig. 1. Example building layout in EVACNET+ or SAFE-R (Source: [3]).

as wide doors, are usually main gates of buildings. There are

usually only one or two exit doors of this type on a oor. Doors
with a width between Wmin and Wmax are classied as narrow
doors, as the widths of these doors are usually close to Wmin. To
meet the needs of real-time evacuation, this simplication is
reasonable for the proposed fast ow control algorithm.
A single-wide door could usually be converted to several
narrow doors, whose locations are very close to the wide door. It is
observed that a wide door usually appears as the main gate of a
building and people usually reach a hall after entering the main
gate. The hall connects to different parts of the building through
different passageways. Logically, narrow doors can be installed at
the entering positions of these passageways (Fig. 2). Thus, a wide
door can be converted to multiple-narrow doors.

2.3.1. Single-narrow door problem

If there is only one narrow door on the oor, all evacuees have
to evacuate through this door. The question is whether the

evacuees should be divided into more than one group, with each
group taking a different path to the narrow exit door, to minimize
the total evacuation time.
Let N denote the total number of evacuees, P denote the path a
group of evacuees takes to the ND, Tp denote the time needed to
go through P, (i.e., the total traversal time of P), and Td denote the
total time needed for all the evacuees of an evacuation group (EG)
to pass through the exit door. Then the total evacuation time Te for
this group is Tp+Td.
As Tp Lp/V (Lp is the length of P, V is the average walking
speed of evacuees), and Td Np/DC (Np is the number of
evacuees in the group, DC is the dynamic capacity of the exit
door), Te Lp/V+Np/DC.
When this group takes the shortest path from the source to the
door, Tp is minimized. Suppose evacuees are divided into n groups,
with ni evacuees in group i (i 1,2,3, y, n), and different groups
take different paths (if two groups take the same path, they are
considered as the same group). A group of evacuees are assumed
to occupy the full width of the bottleneck of the path in the

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735

Wide door (WD)

Passageway

Passageway
Logical door

Pas s ag ew ay

Pas s ag ew ay

Fig. 2. Logical doors.

evacuation process. As the exit door is a narrow door, it is

assumed to be the bottleneck of the evacuation route of any group.
Only one group can pass through the exit door at a time and no
other groups can pass through the door simultaneously. Thus, no
matter how many groups are assigned, the total time spent in
passing through the exit door for all evacuation groups is N/DC.
If all evacuation groups take their respective shortest paths
(note that the shortest paths may not be the same) and the arrival
times at the exit door are not far from each other, they will queue
up at the exit door and start to pass through the door one group
after another. It is assumed that a late group arrives at the exit
door before an early group (which is the immediate predecessor of
the late group) has completed its passage through the exit door. If
the traversal time of a group is much longer than the others, the
group should be combined with other groups. The time required
for the whole evacuation process will then be Te Lp/V+N/DC,
where Lp is the length of the shortest path for the rst group
arriving at the exit door.
If all evacuees are classied as one group, Te will not increase
and this solution saves the work on group division. Therefore,
when the only exit door is a narrow door, the shortest path from
the source to the exit door (Lp) can be used for traversal time
calculation and no group division is needed.

2.3.2. Single-wide door (single-WD) problem

When the exit door is a wide door, whose width is greater than
Wmax, the situation is more complicated. As the width of a wide
door is never the bottleneck, it allows more than one evacuation
group to pass through the door simultaneously. Therefore, to nd
an optimal solution to this problem, all simple paths from the
source to the wide door should be found. (Note: A simple path is a
path that connects the source, some intermediate nodes, and the
target, without passing through any intermediate node twice in
the route.) Different combinations of the simple paths should be
checked to nd the optimal solution. Finding all potential simple
paths is a highly complex computation process. Most paths in the
optimal combination, to some extent, overlap with each other,
which is undesirable. To minimize possible interceptions between
evacuation groups, simplication is made to convert a complexwide door problem to a simple-narrow door problem.
Take the Takashimaya Department Store in Singapore for
example, the main gate of its rst oor is a wide door, which can
be simply treated as a series of juxtaposing narrow doors. As these
narrow doors are very close to each other, if there is more than
one group, the evacuation paths of the groups evacuating through
these narrow doors may heavily intersect with each other. To
avoid this problem, logical doors are introduced. Instead of

converting a wide door into a series of juxtaposing narrow doors,

logical doors can be virtually placed at the end of each passageway near the main gate, as shown in Fig. 2. All evacuees, after
passing through a logical door, will enter the hall and then exit
through the main gate. As the widths of these logical doors are
less than or equal to their respective Wmax, they can be deemed as
narrow doors. Thus, this single-wide door problem is transformed
into a multiple-narrow doors problem. Notice that most buildings
usually have one or two wide doors and this simplication is
reasonable and straightforward.
2.3.3. Multiple-narrow doors problem
If there are multiple-narrow doors on a oor of a building, a
rescue team should decide how to divide people stuck on the oor
into several groups and guide them to exits within the shortest
possible evacuation time. This evacuation time refers to the time
needed for all people to travel to exits and pass through exit doors.
If all the doors on a oor of a building are narrow doors and
evacuation through some of these narrow doors can achieve the
shortest evacuation time, then an important task is to identify
these narrow doors, which form a subset of all the narrow doors
on the oor. For each of these identied narrow doors, there will
be exactly one evacuation group passing through it.
The mathematical derivation for the above is shown below:
There is a total of N evacuees at the source waiting to be
evacuated and they are to be divided into k evacuation groups. EGi
has Ni evacuees (i 1,2,3, y, k). The path EGi takes to its assigned
narrow door is Pi, and the length of Pi is Li. V is the average walking
speed of the evacuees. DCi is the dynamic capacity of Doori and
also the bottleneck of Pi (narrow doors) are the bottlenecks of the
evacuation paths.) Ti is the evacuation time for EGi. Thus
k
X

Ni

(1)

T i Li =V N i =DC i

(2)

i1

In an optimal solution, all evacuation groups should be

completely evacuated at the same time, such that
T1 T2 y Tk X. Thus
X Li V N i =DC i

(3)

Ni X  Li =VDC i

(4)

Substitute Ni in Eq. (1) with Ni in Eq. (4):

N

k
k
k
X
X
X
L
DC i
X  i DC i
DC i 
Li
V
V
I1
I1
I1

(5)

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P.-H. Chen, F. Feng / Fire Safety Journal 44 (2009) 732740


1
i
k
Li DC
X
V
A
X @N
k
I1 Si1 DC i
0

3.2. The multiple-NDs ow control algorithm

(6)

From the above mathematical derivation, it can be seen that if a

subset of narrow doors is given, evacuation time X can be
calculated. The evacuation time X may be optimal or not. If the
evacuation time X is the minimum, the corresponding subset of
narrow doors is the optimal ND subset.
A subset of narrow doors is not selected without constraints. A
reasonable ND subset should make XLi/VX0 in Eq. (5) for all the
narrow doors in the subset. This ensures that Ni/DCi is positive and
a path with an unreasonably long distance between the source
and its corresponding narrow door be screened out in the
selection process.
Enumeration is a straightforward method to get an optimal ND
subset. By enumerating all possible ND subsets and comparing
their evacuation times, an optimal solution can be obtained. With
in-depth understanding of the process, an optimal solution can be
obtained using a simpler method instead of going through the
time-consuming enumeration and comparison process. This
method is to be introduced in next section.

As there should be at least one narrow door in an optimal door

subset, Door1, which is nearest to the source location, must be
included rst. After the inclusion of Door1, it should be decided
whether Door2 is to be added to the resulting door set, and then
Door3, Door4, and so on. As mentioned earlier, the elements in the
Door set are in the same order as their corresponding Tpis in the
Tp set.
Let the number of evacuees be N and the evacuation rate at
each door be the dynamic capacity of that door, with the
assumption that exit doors are the bottleneck. Te denotes the
total evacuation time.
When all evacuees are assigned to Door1 (i.e., the door subset
selected is {Door1}), the total evacuation time is T Tp1+N/DC1. If
Np(Tp2Tp1)DC1, then TpTp1+(Tp2Tp1)DC1/DC1, and TpTp2.
Thus, there is no need to assign any evacuees to Door2 and the
optimal door subset to this multiple-NDs problem is {Door1}.
If N4(Tp2Tp1)DC1 (or T4Tp2), add Door2 to the resulting
optimal door subset (ODS) and the new evacuation time is:
T NN 9S2i1 Tpi DC i =S2i1 DC i . This T function is from Eq. (6)
and is generalized as
!
k
k
X
X
T N
Tpi DC i =
DC i
k is the size of the door subset
i1

3. Flow control algorithm for multiple-narrow doors problems

3.1. Generalization of multiple-NDs problems
When a source location is given, all shortest paths from this
location to all narrow doors and the corresponding lengths
can be calculated. If the average walking speed is given, the
evacuation time for each shortest path can be computed. Therefore, after a source location is given, an ordered time set Tp {Tpi,
i 1,2, y, m} can be constructed. Tpi is the evacuation time for
the path Pi, a shortest path from the source to Doori. The order of
the Tp set is ascending (from the shortest to the longest), i.e.,
Tp1oTp2 and so on. If there are any equal values in the Tp set,
the order between the equal values can be given arbitrarily.
Each door is given a door label according to its Tp value, i.e., if the
Tp to the door is Tpi, then the label of the corresponding door is i.
m is the number of narrow doors available in the evacuation
process. Thus, an ordered door set, Door {Doori, i 1,2, y, m},
can be constructed, where Doori corresponds to Tpi. Door1 is the
narrow door nearest to the source location, and Doorm is the
farthest. The corresponding dynamic capacity of each door can be
used to construct an ordered DC set DC {DCi, i 1,2, y, m}. The
solution to a multiple-NDs problem will include a subset of the
Door set. A path set can be built as P {Pi, i 1,2, y, m}. Pi
corresponds to Tpi.
When a subset of the Door set forms a solution to a multipleNDs problem, the evacuation time can be calculated using Eq. (6).
This evacuation time may be the shortest or not. If it is the
shortest, this subset of the Door set is called the optimal door
subset (ODS). As the Door set is ordered based on each doors
corresponding Tp (Door1 has the shortest evacuation time Tp1
from the source location to Door1 among all the doors, followed
by Door2, and so on), the elements in the optimal door subset can
be selected in sequence from the Door set. This is generalized
below:
If the size of an optimal door subset, which is the optimal solution
to a multiple-NDs problem, is n, the ODS is {Doori, i 1,2, y, n},
where npm and m is the number of available narrow doors (NDs) in
the evacuation process.
With this generalization, an algorithm is developed in the
following section.

i1

(7)
If Np(Tp3Tp1)DC1+(Tp3Tp2)DC2, then TpTp3. There is no need
to assign any evacuees to Door3 and the optimal door subset (ODS)
to this multiple-NDs problem is {Door1, Door2}. If N4Ski1 Tpk 
Tpi DC i and NpSk1
i1 Tpk1  Tpi DC i , then T4Tpk and TpTpk+1.
This means that adding Doork+1 to the solution door subset does
not shorten the evacuation time, so the optimal door subset is the
rst k elements in the Door set.
The procedure of the algorithm is described as follows:
Step 1: Construct the ordered Tp (evacuation time for paths)
set, ordered DC (dynamic capacity) set, and ordered Door set with
the source location and walking speed information provided.
Step 2: Find the k value, where
N4

k
k1
X
X
Tpk  Tpi DC i and N 
Tpk1  Tpi DC i
i1

i1

Step 3: The optimal door subset is the rst k doors in the Door
set. The total evacuation time is T N Ski1 Tpi DC i =Ski1 DC i and
the evacuee number assigned to each door is Ni (TTpi)DC
(i 1,2, y, k, where kpm and m is the number of available
evacuation doors).
3.3. k-limited ow control algorithm
If there is a constraint on the number of selected evacuation
paths, the algorithm in Section 3.2 may not be feasible. The
algorithm proposed in Section 3.2 gives an optimal door subset
which can include as many evacuation paths (or evacuation doors)
as possible, even including all available evacuation paths (or
evacuation doors) in the Tp (or Door) set.
In real evacuation mission, there might be fewer rescuers (k)
than the number of available evacuation doors (m). When this
situation occurs, an enumeration method is needed, which is
called the k-limited ow control algorithm. The algorithm is
described below:
Step 1: Find a shortest path from the source to each narrow
door. Construct the ordered Tp and Door sets with the shortest
path information, walking speed and source location. Let m be the
size of the Tp set. In this step, all single-element door subsets

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(such as {Door1}, {Door2}, etc.) are tested and compared. For each
door, there is a corresponding evacuation time if all evacuees are
assigned to that door. The minimum evacuation time among all
the doors can then be found as the single-evacuation door
solution and denoted as Tmin1. Remove all the doors whose Tp is
equal to or greater than Tmin1 in the following steps, because these
doors are too far from the source and will never make it to be in
the optimal door subset. This removal will update the Tp and door
sets, accordingly. The total number of narrow doors after removal
is decreased to N1, which will be considered in the next step. If N1
is one, the searching can stop and the optimal door subset
contains only one narrow door.
Step 2: Compute the evacuation time for each of the possible
combinations of two distinct narrow doors (2ND combinations) in
the modied Door set (with N1 elements) in Step 1. Denote the
minimum evacuation time among all 2ND combinations as Tmin2.
If Tmin2 is greater than or equal to Tmin1, the searching can stop and
the optimal door subset (ODS) is the subset obtained in Step 1
with only one narrow door (1ND) elements. If Tmin2 is less than
Tmin1, remove all the 2ND combinations whose evacuation time
(Tp) is greater than or equal to Tmin2. After removal, the total
narrow door number considered in the next step is decreased
from N1 to N2. If N2 2, the searching can stop and the two
remaining narrow doors are the only elements in the optimal door
subset.
Step 3: Repeat the previous step iteratively to include more and
more narrow doors in the combinations until the searching stops
or until k-ND combinations are reached.
Most ow control algorithms used in evacuation software are
not efcient and effective enough due to their theoretical
complexity. The proposed ow control algorithm is fast in
computation and suitable for real-time applications, especially
for networks with a large number of nodes and arcs.

737

Fig. 3. Floor plan (2nd oor) of Takashimaya Department Store in Singapore.

4. Application of ow control algorithms

The proposed ow control algorithms were tested using the
oor plan of the second oor of the Takashimaya Department
Store on Orchard Road, Singapore. A preliminary virtual reality
(VR) augmented emergency evacuation system, with location
trackers, orientation trackers and head-mounted display (HMD)
integrated, was also tested on Level B3 of Block N1, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore.
To demonstrate the ow control algorithms, a program coded
in Visual C++ 6.0 was developed. Dijkstras [9] algorithm was
adopted as the primary path-nding algorithm. The oor plan of
the second oor of the Takashimaya Department Store is shown in
Fig. 3.
When the program was run, the oor plan of Takashimaya
(Fig. 3) was converted to an equivalent path network on the
program window (Fig. 4). Nodes 1, 8, 14, 27, 30 are narrow
doors. The dynamic capacity (unit: person(s)/s) of each narrow
door was calculated according to the width of the door and
recorded in a le named doors.txt. The path network was saved
in le post.txt. The dynamic capacity information is listed in
Table 1.
To start the program for path nding using the optimal non-klimited ow assignment, one can choose No-k-optimal ow
assignment under the View tab (as in Fig. 6).
Three parameters are required for the optimal non-k-limited
ow assignment. The rst parameter is the source location for
evacuation. It is assumed that the source location (or the location
of the evacuees) is on Arc 1015 (the arc between nodes 10 and
15) and its distance to node 10 is 2 m. The second parameter is the
number of evacuees. It is assumed to be 500 people. The third

Fig. 4. Path network of Takashimaya.

Table 1
Dynamic capacity data of Takashimaya (2nd Floor).
Door node number

Dynamic capacity (People/Sec)

1
8
14
27
30

10
3
3
3
3

parameter is the (average) walking speed. It is assumed to be

2 m/s.
Once the source location is dened, the shortest path from the
source to each narrow door and its length can be calculated.
Dividing the shortest length from the source to each narrow door
by the average walking speed, the traversal time to each narrow
door can be obtained and the ordered Tp set can be constructed.
With the input, the ordered Tp set, and the corresponding ordered
Door set and dynamic capacity set are
Tp {8, 20.5, 23, 32, 32.5}; Door {8, 14, 1, 30, 27}; DC {3, 3,
10, 3, 3}.
As N 5004S5i1 Tp5  Tpi DC i 206, according to the algorithm in Section 3.2, the optimal door set includes all ve doors

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P.-H. Chen, F. Feng / Fire Safety Journal 44 (2009) 732740

Location
Tracker

Scene Engine
Task Algorithms
Object Database
...

Orientation
Tracker

User Input

AR
Engine

Display
Device

Fig. 7. Structure of augmented reality enhance evacuation system.

Table 2
Hardware of the AR enhanced evacuation system.
Fig. 5. Output message box for non-k-limited ow assignment.

Location tracker
Orientation tracker
Mobile computer
HMD

Ekahau Wi-Fi location tracker

Inertia Cube2
Acer TravelMate
Eyetop LCD

5. Augmented reality (AR) enhanced evacuation system

5.1. Introduction

Fig. 6. Main window showing the shortest routes to the exit doors.

and the total evacuation time is

T N

5
X
i1

Tpi DC i =

5
X

DC i 46 s:

i1

The evacuee number assigned to each door can be computed

using
Ni (TTpi)DCi (i 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and the assignment result
is: Door 8 assigned 113 people, Door 14 assigned 76 people,
Door 1 assigned 228 people, Door 30 assigned 41 people and
Door 27 assigned 39 people. The assignment result is shown
on a message box (Fig. 5) and saved in a le named output.txt.
The shortest routes to the ve narrow exit doors are displayed in different colors on the main window of the program
(Fig. 6).
A k-limited ow assignment can be launched by choosing
k-optimal ow assignment under the View tab (see Fig. 6). The
input is similar to that for No-k-optimal ow assignment, with
the additional input of the number limit (k). The output message
box and route display on the main window are similar to those
shown in Figs. 6 and 7, and the grouping prole is saved in le
output.txt.
The developed ow control algorithms can give ow assignment results within one second and are suitable for real-time
applications.

To demonstrate real-time application of the developed ow

control algorithms, a preliminary augmented reality enhanced
evacuation system which integrates head-mounted display
(HMD), augmented reality, virtual reality, indoor positioning,
orientation tracking, ow control algorithms, and path-nding
algorithms was developed and tested using Level B3 of Block N1 at
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The 3D scene on the
head-mounted display changes according to the users location
and head orientation, which is achieved using the AR engine of the
system. With the system and pre-loaded oor plan, the user could
easily navigate in a building and nd the shortest path from any
location to the nearest exit, even if the user is unfamiliar with the
building. The structure of the system is illustrated in Fig. 7 and the
hardware used in the system is listed in Table 2.

5.2. N1-B3 oor plan and its network conversion

Level B3 of Block N1 (N1-B3) at Nanyang Technological
University is a typical large indoor area and all the exit doors
are narrow doors. A simplied oor plan of N1-B3 is shown in
Fig. 8.
There are four exit doors on N1-B3, with a maximum door
width of 1.2 m. The minimum width of the passageway is 2 m. This
implies that the ow assignment in this case can be treated as a
multiple-narrow doors problem. For demonstration purposes, the
source location for evacuation is placed on the passageway area.
Based on the oor plan in Fig. 8, a corresponding path network
shown in Fig. 9 can be constructed.
As evacuees may be at any location in the passageway area,
some method has to be used to map the real passageway
location to a close location on the arc. The method used in the
system is to divide the whole passageway area into different
regions. The location in each region will be mapped to its
corresponding node on the path network. The division into
regions is shown in Fig. 10 and the mapping table indicating the
mapping from a region to its corresponding node on the path
network is shown in Table 3.

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739

Table 3
Mapping table for N1-B3.

Section A

Section B

Section C

Exit Door
Passageway Area
Room Area

Fig. 8. Simplied oor plan of N1-B3.

11

10

16

17
6

12

14

15

13
Fig. 9. Path network of N1-B3.

13

Section A

16

14

10

Section B

11

17

15

Section C

18

19

12

Exit Door
Passageway Area
Room Area

Fig. 10. Region division of N1-B3.

With the mapping table, real-time xy coordinates collected

through the location tracker can be mapped to their corresponding nodes on the path network. The path-nding and ow control
algorithms can also be applied. In the augmented reality enhanced
evacuation system, the 3D virtual reality environment is generated using the OpenGL library of Visual C++ 6.0. The Cartesian
coordinate system associated with the 3D VR environment of
N1-B3 is shown in Fig. 11. In Fig. 11, the lower left corner of the
oor is (1, 1) and the upper right corner is (182.4, 21).

5.3. System demonstration

Suppose there are 300 people (trapped in the same region) to
be evacuated from Level B3 of Block N1 (N1-B3) at Nanyang
Technological University, and three rescuers equipped with the
augmented reality enhanced evacuation system have found them.
Assume the location tracker of the system has captured the
location coordinates (30, 1.5) and the k-limited ow control

Location in
region

Mapped to

Location in
region

Mapped to

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Node
Node
Node
Node
Node
Node
Node
Node

11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

Closest node on Arc

15
Node 9

Node 10
Closest node on Arc 48
Closest node on Arc 12
Closest node on Arc 23
Closest node on Arc 34
Closest node on Arc 56
Closest node on Arc 67
Closest node on Arc
714
Closest node on Arc
148

10

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

19

algorithm is selected (since there are three systems available in

this case, k 3). The rescuers can select k-optimal ow assignment under the system and input necessary data. The average
walking speed is assumed to be 2 m/s. The coordinates of the
location of the 300 people, (30, 1.5), will be mapped to Arc 56. In
this demonstration case, all the data are input manually. However,
in practice, the tracker input mode will be switched on to allow
the location information to be read directly from the location
tracker.
After input of data, the system output window will show the
position of the rescuer (and the 300 people) and the direction in
which the rescuer is heading according to the real-time data from
the orientation tracker. The optimal evacuation prole will also be
displayed textually and graphically on the window. Different
optimal evacuation routes will be displayed in different colors.
The estimated evacuation time based on the given walking speed
will be calculated and displayed as well. Fig. 12 shows the system
output window with the textual and graphical information
displayed.
Two evacuation routes are shown in Fig. 12, colored red and
blue, respectively. The textual information is displayed at the
upper left corner of the window. It shows that 237 people are
assigned to Door 13 (the blue route) and the remaining people
are assigned to Door 16 (the red route). The estimated total
evacuation time is 43 s. The black dot indicates the real-time
location of the rescuer. The total processing time (from input to
display) is less than one second, which is good for a real-time
system.

6. Conclusions
How to evacuate people efciently and effectively in an
emergency is always an important issue. In this paper, building
evacuation is studied and it is found that most building
evacuation problems can be converted to multiple-narrow doors
problems. With the proposed fast ow control algorithms for
multiple-NDs problems, the development of real-time evacuation
systems becomes possible. Two fast ow control algorithms, the
multiple-NDs ow control algorithm and k-limited ow control
algorithm, are derived.
Both ow control algorithms have been tested using the
Takashimaya Department Store in Singapore and results were
generated in less than a second. Also, the ow control algorithms
have been incorporated in an evacuation system which integrates
indoor positioning, orientation tracking, augmented reality, and
path-nding algorithms to achieve efcient and effective evacuation in real time. The trial of the system was carried out using

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P.-H. Chen, F. Feng / Fire Safety Journal 44 (2009) 732740

(182.4, 21)

Section A

(0, 0)

Section B

Section C

(1, 1)
Fig. 11. Cartesian coordinate system in OpenGL.

References

Fig. 12. System output window.

Level B3 of Block N1 (N1-B3), Nanyang Technological University

and the effectiveness of the proposed ow control algorithms was
shown.

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