Services

Services in pedestrian flow models define a group of similar physical service objects (turnstiles, ticket vending machines, security checkpoints, check-in counters, etc.).

There are two types of space markup shapes you can use to draw services in your pedestrian model:

•  Service with Area — Used to define service(s) with electronic queue (like in bank office, information office on the railway station, etc.) Pedestrians do not stand in a queue line, but wait for their turn in the neighboring area. The area is defined by a polygonal node.
•  Service with Lines — Used to define service(s) with queue(s) where pedestrians wait in a queue line until the service becomes available. Two types of queues are supported: usual queue lines, and "serpentine" queue typically used in airport check-in areas.

You first draw a service in the graphical editor, then add the PedServicePedestrian Library block into your flowchart. Finally, you specify the name of the service markup shape in the corresponding property of the PedService block.

There are two types of services — Linear and Point:

• Linear service defines a line, along which pedestrians should move. A pedestrian services at the starting point of the line and then moves to the end point before leaving service. When the pedestrian directs himself to the service, the service becomes assigned and treated by other pedestrians as occupied. The pedestrian goes to the starting point of the line and starts waiting there for the specified delay. Then pedestrian moves to end point of line. Recovery phase begins when the pedestrian either finishes service (wait for pedestrian to exit is off) or passes end point of line (wait for pedestrian The recovery phase duration is defined by recovery delay. After recovery, the service becomes idle and ready to accept new pedestrians.
• Point service defines a point, where pedestrians should stay on for service delay time. When a pedestrian directs himself to the service, the service becomes assigned and treated by other pedestrians as occupied. The pedestrian goes to a random point of the line and starts waiting there for the specified delay. The recovery phase begins when the pedestrian finishes service. The recovery phase duration is defined by recovery delay. After recovery, the service becomes idle and ready to accept new pedestrians.

When passing through services with lines, a group of pedestrians may behave differently.

The behaviors are:

• All group members are serviced individually — Each member of the group should be serviced individually. The example of such a service: turnstiles.
• Only one group member is serviced, others wait in a queue — The example: a family buying cinema tickets at the counter. All the family members wait in a queue to choose the seats together, but only one of them — the head of the family pays and gets serviced.
• Only one group member is serviced, others wait in a waiting area — The example: a tourist group buying museum tickets. The tourists do not wait in the queue, they just wait for their tour guide to buy the tickets for the whole group. The waiting area where will appear if you select the Waiting area for groups option in the Service With Lines properties.

You can choose one of three alternative behavior modes in the flowchart block that creates pedestrian groups (it can be PedSource, PedEnter, or PedGroupAssemble), and even change the group servicing settings in the properties of some specific service with lines.

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