Researchers at the Univ. of Southern Mississippi are developing advanced simulation software that uses avatars to simulate how to quickly evacuate a packed stadium in the event of an attack or threat.
The effort is being funded in part by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate.
SportEvac is being developed and tested at the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety & Security (NCS4) at Southern Mississippi with one goal being to create an industry standard that each venue can tailor for themselves, Mike Matthews, a program manager for S&T’s Infrastructure and Geophysical Division, said during a recent blogger’s roundtable hosted by S&T.
The requirements for the modeling software are being generated from within DHS, specifically the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Office of Infrastructure Protection, Matthews said. They want to know “How can you most effectively and efficiently evacuate people with the least amount of injury and death,” he said.
For owners and operators of sports venues it will provide them with a better idea on how to respond to a crisis, Matthews said. SportEvac will create a tool suite for security planners to run scenarios of different size crowds and they will be able to practice with every game, Lou Marciani, director of NCS4 and the principal investigator for SportEvac, said.
Security officials can introduce variables such as closed gates, the different ages of attendees and how many season ticket holders are in the crowd, Marciani said.
SportEvac makes use of blueprints from different stadiums to create virtual, three-dimensional models that can be filled with 70,000 avatars as fans that are programmed to respond to threats unpredictably. The software also includes avatars that can replicate workers and first responders.
DHS says that currently most stadium evacuation software applications can’t simulate more than about 5,000 people. That’s “bush league” compared to attendance at most college and professional football games, it said.
The software also includes applications to allow security planners to allocate and track resources, Marciani said.
“Crowd dynamics” are a big challenge in developing the software, Marciani said.
DHS and NCS4 are also partnered with the software technology firm Regal Decision Systems Inc., on the project.
The project was begun more than a year ago. Marciani hopes by January 2011 version 1.0 will be ready so that stadiums can customs their 3-D modeling for “what if” scenario planning.
An alpha test of the software is planned to begin imminently and a beta test at the Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey is slated for July.