Collective patterns under emergency conditions: Linking non-human biological organisms to pedestrians

Lack of complementary data under emergency conditions has hindered the progress of quantitative theories and models to simulate the collective dynamics of pedestrians. Previous studies have been limited in this way, but this study attempts to address that gap in data for model development and validation by using empirical data from non-human biological organisms. Experiments with panicking Argentine ants were performed to study collective pedestrian traffic. The experiments were the first to use non-human biological organisms to study the effect of geometrical structures to the collective movement patterns. Based on the experiments, a conceptual framework to model collective forces are presented. The practical applications of the experiments are also discussed. The proposed novel approach suggests a new direction in applying knowledge of the collective dynamical patterns of non-human entities to the collective dynamics of humans, in order to devise sound strategies to aid evacuation.