Importance of body-part-movements in self-organization of pedestrian crowds

Takenori, Tomaru; Yuta, Nishiyama; Claudio, Feliciani; Hisashi, Murakami · 2025 · DOAJ

DOI: 10.1051/epjconf/202533404014

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Summary

This study investigates the role of individual body-part movements in the self-organization of pedestrian crowds, addressing a gap in existing research that typically models pedestrians as points or ovals. The authors aim to understand how specific physical motions, such as foot stepping and body rotation, influence group-level structures like lane formation in bidirectional flows. Specifically, the research examines the relationship between structural instability in these lanes and the body rotations pedestrians perform to avoid collisions. The experimental design involved 48 participants (24 walking in each direction) in a 10 × 3 m mock corridor. Participants completed 20 trials under two conditions: walking with external auditory cues at a constant tempo of 2 Hz (CUE condition) to align footsteps, and walking without cues (NO_CUE condition). The researchers tracked walking trajectories and shoulder positions using overhead video recordings (4K, 30 fps) and image-processing software. Body rotation angles were calculated relative to the corridor’s axis to quantify collision avoidance behaviors. The analysis focused on six trials per condition, correlating mean body rotation with the number of formed lanes and examining rotation patterns across five stages of lane development: initial intersection, lane development, full bidirectional flow, lane dissolution, and re-emergence of separate flows. The results revealed a significant positive correlation between the number of lanes and mean body rotation across all trials (r = 0.78, p < 0.01), indicating that more numerous, narrower lanes required greater body rotation to avoid collisions. Temporal analysis showed that body rotation peaked during the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of lanes (stages 2–4). Crucially, pedestrians in the CUE condition exhibited significantly larger body rotations than those in the NO_CUE condition during these stages, with the highest rotation occurring at the stage of full lane formation. This suggests that footstep synchronization driven by auditory cues led to a higher number of lanes, which increased structural instability and necessitated more pronounced body adjustments. These findings demonstrate that movements of one body part (feet) influence group-level structure, which in turn dictates the movements of another body part (shoulders/torso). The study highlights that while lane formation may appear ordered from a top-down view, it involves significant instability from a first-person perspective, requiring active collision avoidance. The authors conclude that current computational models often overlook these embodied instabilities by treating individuals as abstract shapes. This work provides an empirical foundation for developing more realistic models that account for the physical embodiment of pedestrians and the dynamic interplay between individual body mechanics and collective crowd behavior.

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• pedestrian behavior perception