Experimental Approach to Study Pedestrian Dynamics Towards Affective Agents Modeling

The modeling of a new generation of agent-based simulation systems supporting pedestrian and crowd management taking into account affective states represents a new research frontier. As in the case of any study of pedestrian dynamics, adding an affective component implies the rigorous design of experimental protocols and data acquisition sets. The integration of multi-modal signal sources considering both data coming from physical activity and uncontrolled reactions related to affective responses provides new perspectives to study pedestrian dynamics and pedestrian interaction with traditional vehicles as well as with autonomic and autonomous transportation systems. The designed in-vivo experimental protocol devoted to the collection of movement and physiological data as reliable stress indicators during walking and road crossing, and the related analysis will be illustrated.