Modeling handicapped pedestrians considering physical characteristics using cellular automaton

In disaster situations, the evacuation of pedestrians is very important. In particular, handicapped pedestrians experience difficulties in evacuation situations because they cannot move quickly. Therefore, the evacuation of handicapped pedestrians is considered to be an important factor in disaster situations. In this study, we use a walking model based on a cellular automaton (CA) to study the effect of handicapped walking movement related to traffic flow. For the purpose of this research, handicapped walking encompasses wheelchairs, crutches, children, and elderly people. A new model is constructed and analyzed that reflects the physical characteristics of handicapped pedestrians. In this study, the change of pedestrian traffic flow was observed while simulating a 30% ratio of handicapped to normal people. The experimental results showed that the average walking speed decreased by approximately 12% for each simulation step. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that it is necessary to consider handicapped pedestrians in order to conduct realistic evacuation simulations.