Services in pedestrian flow models define a group of similar physical service objects (turnstiles, ticket vending machines, security checkpoints, check-in counters, ticket office, cash desks, etc.)
There are two types of space markup shapes you can use to draw services in your pedestrian model:
Service with Area - Used to define service(s) with an electronic queue (like in bank office, information office on the railway station, etc.) Pedestrians do not stand in a queue line, but wait for their turn in the hall. The hall is modeled by a polygonal node and can support all its functionality, such as restriction of access to the node and restriction of speed inside the node.
Service with Lines - Used when pedestrians wait in a line until the service becomes available. Two types of queues are supported: straight queue lines, and "serpentine" queue (or "zigzag" queue) typically used in airport check-in areas.
Demo model: Serpentine Queue
Let's demonstrate how to draw four check in counters with a serpentine queue. Here is our layout, you can see four placeholders for check-in counters on the left side:
Name – The name of the service. The name is used to identify and access the service shape from code.
Ignore – If selected, the service shape is excluded from the model.
Visible on upper agent – If selected, the service shape is also visible on the upper agent where this agent lives.
Lock - If selected, the service shape is locked. Locked shapes do not react to mouse clicks - it is impossible to select them in the graphical editor until you unlock them.
Visible – Here you specify whether the shape is visible on the animation at the model runtime, or not. Using the control, choose yes or no.
Level – The level this service belongs to.
Number of services – Here you can define the number of service points.
N of queues – Here you can define the number of queues leading to the service points.
Type of queue – Type of the queue: common straight Line, or Serpentine queue with belt barriers.
Type of service – Type of the service point. Use Linear for services where pedestrians should move along the service shape, passing begin and end points of the line. Use Point for services, where pedestrians just stand near the service point while being serviced.
Bidirectional - [Enabled if the Type of service is Linear] If this option is selected, pedestrians can pass services in both directions.
N of reverse queues – [Enabled if the service is Bidirectional] Here you can define the number of reverse queues leading to the service points. Pedestrians can pass services in any directions.
Wait for exit – [Enabled if the Type of service is Linear] If this checkbox is selected, the service would not start servicing another pedestrian if some pedestrian is being serviced currently and has not reached the end point of service's line or polyline yet. For example, turnstiles do not have such restriction, while security check service does.
Serve pedestrians from
– Defines whether service will serve pedestrians from
Longest queue,
Closest queue (strict),
Closest not empty queue, Next queue (round robin), Priority queue
or some
Other
queue that user should individually choose using the
Queue
parameter below.
Waiting area for groups – Selecting this option you will create the area that will act as the waiting area for pedestrian group members. Inside this area the members of pedestrian group will wait while the leader of their group is serviced at this service (you should do this only if the Group behavior in service is Only one group member is serviced, others wait in a waiting area).
Group behavior
– [Visible if
Service type
is
Point] When passing through a service, a group of pedestrians may behave differently. You can choose one of three alternative behavior modes (All group members are
serviced individually,
Only one group member is serviced, others wait in a queue, or
Only one group member is serviced, others wait in a waiting area).
Since the behavior may depend on the role of the particular group (guided group of tourists, family, group of friends), you may want to define it once for the group to avoid setting several times in different service shapes. In this case you
define
the behavior mode in the object creating this group (it can be
PedSource,
PedEnter, or
PedGroupAssemble).
If this particular group of services should follow the same rules you have defined for the group, just choose here
Depends on the settings of each incoming group.
If this block defines the service where the pedestrian groups behave in a different way, choose here
The same for all groups
and define this behavior using the parameter below.
The behavior
– Here you can choose how groups of pedestrians behave while passing through this service. There are three alternative behaviors:
All group members are serviced individually
- Each member of the group should be serviced individually. The example: turnstiles.
Only one member is serviced, others wait in a queue
- The example: a family buying cinema tickets at the counter. All the family members wait in a queue to choose the seats together, but only one of them - the head of the family pays and gets serviced.
Only one member is serviced, others wait in a waiting area
- The example: a tourist group buying museum tickets. The tourists do not wait in the queue, they just wait for their tour guide to buy the tickets for the whole group. To draw the waiting area for this case, select the
Waiting area for groups
option above and adjust the created
area
in the graphical editor.
Service color – Color of service shape(s).
Queue color – Color of queue shape(s).
Reverse queue color – Color of reverse queue shape(s).
Show in - Here you can choose whether you want the shape to be shown both In 2D and 3D animation, or in 2D only, or in 3D only.
Show name
– If selected, the shape's name is displayed in the graphical editor.