• Persons

Persons#

A person moves through the net by walking or using vehicles. The walking behavior is customizable by selecting a pedestrian model. A person element has child elements defining stages of its plan. The stages are a connected sequence of ride, walk and stop elements as described below. Each person must have at least one stage in its plan.

<person id="foo" depart="0">
    <walk edges="a b c"/>
    <ride from="c" to="d" lines="busline1"/>
    <ride .../>
    <walk .../>
    <stop .../>
</person>

Available Person Attributes#

Available vType Attributes#

When specifying a type, the set of attributes which are in effect during simulation depend on the selected pedestrian model. Attributes such as width, length, imgFile and color are always used for visualization.

Repeated persons (personFlows)#

To define multiple persons with the same plan, the element <personFlow> can be used. It uses the same parameters and child elements as <person> except for the departure time. The ids of the created persons are "personFlowId.runningNumber" and they are distributed either equally or randomly in the given interval. The following additional parameters are known:

*: Only one of these attributes is allowed.

Examples#

   <personFlow id="p" begin="0" end="10" period="2">
       <walk from="beg" to="end"/>
   </personFlow>

   <personFlow id="person" begin="0" end="1" number="4" departPos="80">
       <walk from="2/3to1/3" to="1/3to0/3" arrivalPos="55"/>
       <ride from="1/3to0/3" to="0/4to1/4" lines="train0"/>
       <walk from="0/4to1/4" to="1/4to2/4" arrivalPos="45"/>
       <stop lane="1/4to2/4_0" duration="20" startPos="40" actType="singing"/>
       <ride from="1/4to2/4" to="3/4to4/4" lines="car0"/>
   </personFlow>

Simulation input#

The input for a person consists of a sequence of stages of the 3 types given below.

Rides#

Rides define the start and end point of a movement with a single mode of transport (e.g. a car or a bus). They are child elements of plan definitions.

The vehicle to use has to exist already (either public transport or some existing passenger car) and the route to take is defined by the vehicle. The person enters the vehicle if it stops on the 'from' edge and any of the following conditions are met

• the 'line' attribute of the vehicle or the 'id' of the vehicle is given in the list defined by the lines attribute of the ride OR the lines attribute contains 'ANY' and the vehicle stops at the destination 'busStop' of the ride (or at the destination edge if no destination busStop is defined).
• the lines attribute can be used to apply taxis, see taxi for more information
• the vehicle has a triggered stop and the person position is within the range of startpos,endPos of the stop.
• the vehicle has a timed stop and the person is waiting within 10m of the vehicle position

The position of the person is either its departPos or the arrival position of the preceding plan element

A given bus stop (or any other stopping place) may serve as a replacement for a destination edge and arrival position. If an arrival position is given nevertheless it has to be inside the range of the stop.

The positions of persons in a vehicle depend on the 'guiShape' parameter of the vehicle as well as its dimensions. The offset between the front of the vehicle and the first passenger placement can be configured by adding <param key="frontSeatPos" value="3.14"/> to the vType definition of the vehicle.

The number of persons sitting side-by-side depends on the vehicle width but can be overruled by setting <param key="seatingWidth" value="1.3"/> in the vType definition.

Walks#

Walks define a pedestrian movement. They are child elements of plan definitions.

You can define either a route-id, or a list of edges to travel or a from and a to edge. In the first and second case the route edges are traveled in the listed order. They do not need to be joined in the net. If traveling between stops on the same edge then only include the edge once. In the latter case a shortest path calculation is performed and it is an error if there is no path connecting from and to.

When given as router input input using the attributes from and to will be transformed into a walk using the attribute edges by routing along edges permissible for pedestrian (i.e. sidewalks).

A given bus stop (or other stopping place) may serve as a replacement for a destination edge and arrival position. If an arrival position is given nevertheless, it has to be inside the range of the stop.

Stops#

Stops define a delay until the next element of a plan is started. They can be used to model activities such as working or shopping. Stops for persons follow the specification at Specification#Stops. However, only the attributes lane, duration and until are evaluated. Using these attributes it is possible to model activities with a fixed duration as well as those with a fixed end time. If a person needs to be transferred between two positions without delay, it is possible to use two stops in conjunction.

Parameters#

All stages can hold user defined parameters in the usual <param key="k" value="v"/> form. If a stage is generated using a personTrip the stages inherited the parameters of the trip.

Simulation behavior#

A person is starting her life at her depart time on the source (resp. first) edge of the first walk, ride or stop. She tries to start the next step of her plan.

Riding#

The person checks whether a vehicle with a line from the given list is stopping at the given edge. If such a vehicle exists and the person is positioned between the start and end position of the vehicle's stop, the person will enter the vehicle and start its ride. If such a vehicle exists but the person is not positioned between the start and end position of the vehicle's stop, the person will still enter if the vehicle is triggered by the person and the distance between person and vehicle is at most 10 metres. It does not check whether the vehicle has the aspired destination on the current route. The first time the vehicle stops (on a well defined stop) at the destination edge, the ride is finished and the person proceeds with the next step in the plan.

If option --time-to-teleport.ride is set, persons will be teleported to their ride destination after the specified time rather than waiting until the end of the simulation (or until all active vehicles have left the simulation).

Walking#

The walking behavior of a person depends on the selected pedestrian model. Generally, the person follows the given sequence of edges with a speed bounded by the desiredMaxSpeed attribute of the persons type. It starts either at the position from the previous stage of its plan or at the specified departPos if no previous stage exists. The walk concludes at the specified arrivalPos which defaults to the end of the final edge. Both position attributes support the special values max and random which work as described for vehicles.

Stopping#

The person stops for the maximum of currentTime + duration and until.

Access#

Whenever a person starts or ends a walk at a busStop or trainStop (collectively called stoppingPlace), an access stage is inserted into the person plan under the following conditions:

• the walk ends on an edge that is different from the stoppingPlace edge and the stoppingPlace has an <access> definition that connects it with the final edge of the walk
• the walk starts on an edge that is different from the stoppingPlace edge and the stoppingPlace has an <access> definition that connects it with the first edge of the walk

The time spent in an access stage is equal to the "length" attribute of the access divided by the walking speed of the person. No interaction between persons on the same access element takes place.

Starting the simulation in a Vehicle#

It is possible to start the person simulation simultaneously with the start of a vehicle simulation within that vehicle. I.e. the person starts with a ride within the vehicle, when the vehicle is inserted to the simulation. This is possible for a person definition and a personFlow. In both cases the vehicle must already be loaded in the input file.

Starting a person in a vehicle#

To start the simulation of a person while riding in a vehicle, the depart attribute of the person must be set to triggered. Additionally the first stage of the plan must be a ride. The from attribute is not necessary, since the vehicle start position is already defined and used. The vehicle is indicated by using only the vehicle ID for the lines attribute of the ride. Alternatively, the lines attribute may hold the id of a flow. In this case, most recent vehicle belonging to that flow will receive the person.

Starting multiple persons in a vehicle#

To start the simulation of multiple persons with the same plan while riding in a vehicle, personFlow can be used. This works by setting the attribute begin="triggered". Additionally the first stage of the plan must be a ride. The from attribute is not necessary, since the vehicle start position is already defined and used. The vehicle is indicated by using only the vehicle ID for the lines attribute of the ride. Alternatively, the lines attribute may hold the id of a flow. In this case, most recent vehicle belonging to that flow will receive the person. If the personFlow is defined with attribute number, then all persons will be inserted into the same vehicle. If the personFlow is defined with attribute period, then the persons will be created with the indicated period and be put in the vehicle at a later time (and possibly different vehicles if a flow id was used in lines).

Examples#

Person p0 starts within the vehicle defined by trip v0 at edge gneE0. The ride ends at edge gneE1.

<trip id="v0" depart="15.00" from="gneE0" to="gneE2">
    <stop lane="gneE1_1" duration="60.00"/>
</trip>
<person id="p0" depart="triggered">
    <ride to="gneE1" lines="v0"/>
    <walk to="gneE3"/>
</person>

Persons defined by personFlow p0 start within the vehicle defined by trip v0 at edge gneE0. The ride ends at edge gneE1.

<trip id="v0" depart="15.00" from="gneE0" to="gneE2">
    <stop lane="gneE1_1" duration="60.00"/>
</trip>
<personFlow id="p0" begin="triggered" number="2">
    <ride to="gneE1" lines="v0"/>
    <walk to="gneE3"/>
</person>

Router input#

The following definitions can be processed with duarouter and sumo.

PersonTrips#

A personTrip defines the start and end point of a movement with optional changes in mode. They are child elements to the person. In order to process a personTrip with mode public, the public transport network has to be defined as well. Currently bicycle and/or car can only be the first mode. It is not possible to switch to a car or bicycle after a different mode except when adding 'taxi' to the available modes.

The rules for selecting the best itinerary through the network are described at intermodal routing.

If the computed plan starts with a car or bicycle, a vehicle for use by the person will be automatically generated and set to depart="triggered". A car will be named 'PERSON_ID_0' and bicycle will be named 'PERSON_ID_b0' where 'PERSON_ID' is the id of the person. If a vehicle with this id already exists in the simulation, this vehicle will be used instead (and the user has to ensure that it starts at an appropriate location).

Example#

The following is an example for a person who walks to a train station, rides the train, alights and walks for a bit, then stops for an activity and finally gets into a car and drives away.

<routes>
    <person id="person0" depart="0">
        <walk from="2/3to1/3" to="1/3to0/3" departPos="80" arrivalPos="55"/>
        <ride from="1/3to0/3" to="0/4to1/4" lines="train0"/>
        <walk from="0/4to1/4" to="1/4to2/4" arrivalPos="30"/>
        <stop lane="1/4to2/4_0" duration="20" startPos="40" actType="singing"/>
        <ride from="1/4to2/4" to="3/4to4/4" lines="car0"/>
    </person>

    <vehicle id="train0" depart="50">
        <route edges="1/4to1/3 1/3to0/3 0/3to0/4 0/4to1/4 1/4to1/3"/>
        <stop busStop="busStop0" until="120" duration="10"/>
        <stop busStop="busStop1" until="180" duration="10"/>
    </vehicle>

    <vehicle id="car0" depart="triggered">
        <route edges="1/4to2/4 2/4to3/4 3/4to4/4" departPos="30"/>
        <stop lane="1/4to2/4_0" duration="20" startPos="40" endPos="60"/>
    </vehicle>

</routes>

You can omit the from attribute in the second and following movements and you can use bus stops as destinations. For trains the busStops should have access lanes. The movement of person0 in the example above could also be written as

<person id="person0" depart="0">
    <walk from="2/3to1/3" busStop="busStop0" departPos="80" arrivalPos="55"/>
    <ride busStop="busStop1" lines="train0"/>
    <walk to="1/4to2/4" arrivalPos="30"/>
    <stop lane="1/4to2/4_0" duration="20" startPos="40" actType="singing"/>
    <ride from="1/4to2/4" to="3/4to4/4" lines="car0"/>
</person>

Visualization#

Persons are rendered in the GUI with the configured detail-level. When assigning a type with attribute imgFile, the person may be rendered with an image. By default, the image will not be rotated (suitable for abstract icons). However, when setting the types guiShape="pedestrian" the image will be rotated according to the persons location and stage.

Person Output#

Most of the Simulation outputs are tailored for vehicles. Only a small number of output formats support persons:

• tripinfo-output
• vehroute-output
• fcd-output
• netstate-dump
• aggregated simulation statistics

Devices#

Person-devices are used to model and configure different aspects such as output (person-device.fcd) or behavior (person-device.rerouting).

The following device names are supported and can be used for the placeholder <DEVICENAME> below:

• btreiver
• btsender
• rerouting
• fcd

Assignment of devices via simulation options works the same as for vehicles except for the fact that all options are prefixed with --person-device.DEVICENAME instead of --device.DEVICENAME.

Assignment of devices via <vType> or <person>-parameters works in the same way as it does for vehicles.

Planned features#

The following features are not yet implemented.

• Simulation routing for persons (person-device.rerouting)