  Cell-based crowd evacuation systems provide adaptive or static exit-choice
indications that favor a coordinated group dynamic, improving evacuation time
and safety. While a great effort has been made to modeling its control logic by
assuming an ideal communication and positioning infrastructure, the
architectural dimension and the influence of pedestrian positioning uncertainty
have been largely overlooked. In our previous research, a Cell-based crowd
evacuation system (CellEVAC) was proposed that dynamically allocates exit gates
to pedestrians in a cell-based pedestrian positioning infrastructure. This
system provides optimal exit-choice indications through color-based indications
and a control logic module built upon an optimized discrete-choice model. Here,
we investigate how location-aware technologies and wearable devices can be used
for a realistic deployment of CellEVAC. We consider a simulated real evacuation
scenario (Madrid Arena) and propose a system architecture for CellEVAC that
includes: a controller node, a radio-controlled LED wristband subsystem, and a
cell-node network equipped with active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
devices. These subsystems coordinate to provide control, display and
positioning capabilities. We quantitatively study the sensitivity of evacuation
time and safety to uncertainty in the positioning system. Results showed that
CellEVAC was operational within a limited range of positioning uncertainty.
Further analyses revealed that reprogramming the control logic module through a
simulation-optimization process, simulating the positioning system's expected
uncertainty level, improved the CellEVAC performance in scenarios with poor
positioning systems.
