Living Worlds

Research · Crowds · Oct 11, 2026

Crowds in four Jülich experiments nobody had opened

Met52 runs: crossing, counterflow, a corner, a bottleneck

The test at a glance

What it tests
Accuracy against reality on the same four crowd measures.
Data
Jülich Pedestrian Dynamics Data Archive: 52 runs of a 120-degree crossing, counterflow, a corner and a bottleneck.
Held out
All 52 runs, unopened before registration.
Compared against
Social force, and straight walkers (ORCA scored alongside).
Bar
Lower rank sum than both in more than half the runs of each experiment.
Result
4 of 4: 9 of 16, 11 of 18, 8 of 13 and 4 of 5.

Living Worlds' new crowd moved more like real people, in walking speed, spacing, path straightness and close contacts, than social force and people who ignore each other in more than half the runs of all four Jülich experiments: the 120-degree crossing 9 of 16, counterflow 11 of 18, the corner 8 of 13 and the bottleneck 4 of 5. It knows only where and when each person entered and left. Registered before any of the 52 runs was opened, with ORCA scored alongside; any run where a crowd failed to finish counted as a loss.

Protocol, result and scorer

Next

Real shoppers, following no instructions: met (the result).

Crowds

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