Guided crowd evacuation: approaches and challenges

Evacuation leaders and/or equipment provide route and exit information for people and guide them to the expected destinations, which could make crowd evacuation more efficient in case of emergency. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of recent advances in guided crowd evacuation. Different guided crowd evacuation approaches are classified according to guidance approaches and technologies. A comprehensive analysis and comparison of crowd evacuation with static signage, dynamic signage, trained leader, mobile devices, mobile robot and wireless sensor networks are presented based on a single guidance mode perspective. In addition, the different evacuation guidance systems that use high-tech means such as advanced intelligent monitoring techniques, AI techniques, computer technology and intelligent inducing algorithms are reviewed from a system's perspective. Future researches in the area of crowd evacuation are also discussed.