Passenger Flow Balancing Simulation
Next stop: passenger flow balancing! As we all know, airports can be rather crowded at times. To ensure passenger safety and comfort, it's crucial to balance the flow of people throughout the terminal. In this simulation, I experimented with a simple navmesh setup where passengers are represented by capsules and have to navigate from A to B. Building on my previous NavMesh experiment, I added a dynamic element: a sign that directs passengers to different exits based on user input.
Halfway through their journey they are presented with a sign that tells them the directions to the exit point. Now, the nifty thing in this simulation is that the sign can change dynamically based on the user's input. Press the left arrow and people move left, press the right arrow and the sign flips and people move to the right. This allows us to simulate how changing signage can influence passenger behaviour in the terminal. You can even provide a percentage split to mimic a small group of people that miss the sign and just follow another route altogether. The sky is the limit!
Of course this is a huge simplification of a real problem, but this little tech demo proves an important aspect: to be able to influence an airport simulation in real time. Large software solutions often take a lot of computing time before you see the output of a change, but being able to influence a simulation in real time is a game changer.
Some of the new concepts I learned here were providing navigation waypoint sets to agents and changing them on the go, while making sure the passenger does not return to the start of the new waypoint set (which was quite a hassle to be honest). Also, flipping the sign around on keyboard presses was something new. Working with textures and materials is a whole topic in itself. And finally: you will barely notice it, but the passengers are not spawning from the same origin point, but there is a small spread there. That is a small tweak that makes the whole simulation show a lot more logical and pleasing. One to remember!
Anyway, here is my video of the concept of passenger flow simulation in action:
This is another essential piece of the puzzle that will eventually lead to a full-fledged airport simulation. Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting journey!