Active and reactive behaviour in human mobility : the influence of attraction points on pedestrians
Gutiérrez Roig, M. (Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Física Fonamental)
Sagarra, O. (Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Física Fonamental)
Oltra, Aitana (Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats)
Palmer, John R. B. (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Bartumeus, Frederic (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Díaz Guilera, Albert (Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Física Fonamental)
Perelló, Josep (Universitat de Barcelona. Departament de Física Fonamental)

Date:	2016
Abstract:	Human mobility is becoming an accessible field of study, thanks to the progress and availability of tracking technologies as a common feature of smart phones. We describe an example of a scalable experiment exploiting these circumstances at a public, outdoor fair in Barcelona (Spain). Participants were tracked while wandering through an open space with activity stands attracting their attention. We develop a general modelling framework based on Langevin dynamics, which allows us to test the influence of two distinct types of ingredients on mobility: reactive or context-dependent factors, modelled by means of a force field generated by attraction points in a given spatial configuration and active or inherent factors, modelled from intrinsic movement patterns of the subjects. The additive and constructive framework model accounts for some observed features. Starting with the simplest model (purely random walkers) as a reference, we progressively introduce different ingredients such as persistence, memory and perceptual landscape, aiming to untangle active and reactive contributions and quantify their respective relevance. The proposed approach may help in anticipating the spatial distribution of citizens in alternative scenarios and in improving the design of public events based on a facts-based approach.
Grants:	European Commission 318132 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad FIS2013-47532-C3-2-P Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad FIS2012-38266-C2-2 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2014/SGR-608 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2012/ACDC-00066
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Computational social science ; Behavioural experiments ; Human mobility ; Random walk
Published in:	Royal Society Open Science, Vol. 3, issue 7 (July 2016) , ISSN 2054-5703

DOI: 10.1098/rsos.160177
PMID: 27493774

12 p, 770.4 KB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles