Abstract
To investigate the gait characteristics and avoidance mechanism of pedestrians under limited visibilities, a novel method is proposed to realise the quantitative control of visibility conditions. A series of experimental scenarios, including free movement, obstacle avoidance and head-on avoidance, were conducted at various visibility levels. Based on the extracted trajectories, gait parameters, including step width, step length and step time, are measured by using the automatic extraction method. The relations between visibility distance, gait parameters and walking speed are analysed. Furthermore, the obstacle avoidance process, represented by the start point, mid-point and end-point under limited visibilities, is investigated. The minimum distance between two individuals moving in opposite directions is also discussed. Finally, the right-side avoidance preference of individuals is found during the avoidance process. The study is helpful for understanding how humans adjust their movement when confronting different situations in limited visibility environments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).