demo

A collaboration between Sheffield University and the UK’s Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) is using advanced hardware to build large-scale pedestrian simulations in a virtual reality (VR) environment.

During the initial phase of the University Partnership Program (UPP), a demonstrator had been installed in the TSC’s Visualisation Laboratory, which is a facility used for developing virtual reality technology to be utilised in transport applications.

During the demonstration, a user could navigate Canary Wharf station in London and communicate with the crowd using the UK’s only Omnifinity Omnidirectional Treadmill and Virtual Reality headset.

Sheffield University’s Dr Paul Richmond said: "People within the environment interact as they would within the real world steering and avoiding each other (and the user) with personalised goals which dictate their patterns of movement.

"The combination of this novel ‘agent-based’ simulation and VR technology gives a completely new perspective on the environment."

"The combination of this novel ‘agent-based’ simulation and VR technology gives a completely new perspective on the environment.

"A digital model of a train station becomes a living, bustling world, giving real insight into how people experience and effect an urban environment."

Sheffield University’s powerful Flexible Large-Scale Agent Modelling Environment Graphics Processing Unit (Flame GPU) system is utilised in the project.

The ‘Flame GPU’ system uses high-end graphics processors to merge the real-life human behaviour of huge crowds into virtual environments.

Through this demonstration, the TSC aims to enable transport planners to experience the results of their decisions from the traveller’s point of view.

This will help them avoid undertaking expensive real-life trials.

Plans are on to embrace the Flame GPU technology to model driving behaviour on roads in the UK.

Such simulations will be applied to the entire UK trunk road system, thereby giving insights into how the country can meet increasing transport infrastructure demands.

TSC technologist Martin Pett said: "Transport planners of the future will delve into interactive virtual worlds rather than interpreting data from spreadsheets or looking at images on a 2D monitor.

"The work we are doing with Sheffield University will allow these environments to be as dynamic and interactive as the real world, essentially turning transport planning from numbers game into a customer centric experience."

Image: The TSC demonstrator can generate a living crowd of thousands at Canary Wharf Station. Photo: courtesy of Catapult Transport Systems.