About
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Introduction
PhD, 2016 FEUP (Porto University - Faculty of Engineering), Department of Informatics Engineering.
Interests: Modelling & Simulation, Intelligent Agents, ABM, ABMS, Social Simulation, Evacuation Modelling, Fire Risk
Researcher at: LIACC Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science Laboratory.
Fire safety engineer authoring many complex buildings such as hospitals and shopping centres.
Professor at ISTEC Porto.
Additional affiliations
March 2011 - present
October 2010 - February 2017
September 2010 - present
University of Porto do Porto, FEUP / LIACC
Position
- Pedestrian Behaviour Modelling & Simulation
Education
September 2010 - January 2016
September 2005 - December 2008
September 1996 - July 1998
Publications
Publications (85)
Jornada Ibérica em Economia Circular e Sustentabilidade do Negócio
REALIDADE VIRTUAL E JOGOS SÉRIOS: UM NOVO PARADIGMA PARA TREINO DE PESSOAS EM EVACUAÇÃO DE EDIFÍCIOS
João Emílio Almeida
joao.almeida@engenheiros.pt
Engº Informático, Mestre em Segurança Contra Incêndios,
Doutor em Engª Informática (FEUP - Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto),
Investigador no LIACC (Lab. de Inteligência Artificial...
The Covid-19 pandemic has posed new challenges for both students and teachers, having to move from face-to-face to online teaching in a short time. The threats brought new opportunities, allowing students away from schools due to limitations, to use on-line classes for developing their careers and academic skills. Designing an inclusive course for...
The ongoing technological revolution, with the automation of many of the tasks traditionally performed by humans, in particular with the advent of Artificial Intelligence, will eliminate some jobs; however, will create others, nonexistent currently. The challenge facing higher education professors is to know what tools they should provide for stude...
As Alterações Climáticas e o Desenvolvimento Sustentável
ABIMOTA - Jornada Técnica Ibérica em Mobilidade Inteligente, Economia Circular e Gestão de Ativos
Cloud Computing has changed the paradigm of traditional computing, freeing end users and companies from having their own computing resources. Instead, users have access to seemingly unlimited resources, with great availability and reliability, in a transparent and ubiquitous way, using thin clients through the internet. In this article, the NIST Cl...
Behavioural modelling is a new branch of Artificial Intelligence as well as Modelling and Simulation, lacking knowledge about the human decision-making process, which is not always obvious or rational, but dependent of emotions. When addressing the specific field of emergency situations and preparedness, for instance, when facing a fire, there is h...
Neste artigo referem-se alguns aspetos a considerar no projeto de instalações elétricas relacionados com a SCIE (Segurança Contra Incêndios em Edifícios) e a legislação atualmente em vigor (DL 220/2008 e Portaria 1532/2008). São abordados, entre outros, alguns cuidados a ter em relação a: alimentação elétrica, fontes locais e centrais de energia de...
This paper describes an experiment designed to elicit human behaviour when facing the urgent need of exiting an unknown building. This work is part of a larger effort to devise the methodological approach underlying the implementation of simulation of pedestrians and elicitation of their emergent dynamics, an experimental framework coined SPEED. To...
Evacuation planning as part of fire safety management, is mandatory in Portugal for new and existing buildings. Estimating the egress time is paramount for the development of emergency evacuation plans. For this estimation, fire drills are undertaken. However, carrying out fire drills demands a certain amount of time and financial resources. In add...
Uso da Modelação Computacional em Projetos Baseados no Desempenho: exemplo de aplicação na Casa da Música e Coliseu Porto. Introdução (apresentação). Introdução à modelação computacional de incêndios e evacuação de edifícios usando os aplicativos computacionais FDS/Pyrosim e Pathfinder 2016. Apresentação de caso de estudo na Casa da Música (sala Su...
A implementação das Medidas de Autoproteção, no que se refere aos Simulacros e formação, tem revelado algumas dificuldades. Os simulacros são simplificados e as ações de formação são aligeiradas e sem a componente prática. A aquisição de conhecimento sobre os ocupantes em situação de incêndio tem-se revelado complicada em consequência da dificuldad...
Apresentação de 2 resumos: 1. USO DO FDS PARA ANÁLISE DO DESENVOLVIMENTO DE INCÊNDIO: EXEMPLO DE APLICAÇÃO NA CASA DA MÚSICA: A evolução de um incêndio pode ser simulada com recurso a modelos computacionais, utilizando uma técnica designada por Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). A aplicação mais conhecida e desenvolvida nesta área é o Fire Dynamic...
O dimensionamento das saídas de locais com um elevado número de ocupantes pode ser feito com base na legislação, ou então recorrendo a modelos computacionais, através de simulação. Existem vários programas de computador para este efeito. No presente artigo apresenta-se o “Pathfinder” e como caso de aplicação a Casa da Música, no Porto. Esta abordag...
A evolução de um incêndio pode ser simulada com recurso a modelos computacionais, utilizando uma técnica designada por Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). A aplicação mais conhecida e desenvolvida nesta área é o Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS). Neste artigo apresentamos um estudo feito com o FDS aplicado às Salas Suggia e 2 da Casa da Música (CdM) no...
Download to see Video of application running.
Download to read PowerPoint presentation.
This paper focuses on an approach to dynamic planning, for an emergency ambient such as team rescue in indoors fire. First a graph is generated as the simulation runs, creating an effect similar to means-end analysis as each fire trying to reach the firefighter. This graph is updated in real time, improving the solution performance and reacting to...
This thesis proposes the use of Serious Games as a behaviour elicitation tool in addition to the traditional methods such as direct observations or stated-preference questionnaires. The resulting knowledge is needed to improve behavioural models of intelligent agents mimicking pedestrians. From the literature review and subsequent gap analysis, a m...
The problem of leaving a building while facing some emergency has gained much attention from the scientific community. Evacuation simulators can help emergency planners to assess the safety of buildings. However, such simulators still lack behavioural knowledge to increase their accuracy. The elderly have specific behaviour idiosyncrasies. This pap...
Crowded spaces are prone to accidents and many casualties in case of fire or other emergency situations. They can happen in large buildings or urban spaces. Predicting crowds’ behavior is crucial for creating adequate simulators that practitioners can use for evaluating evacuation scenarios in such emergency cases. On the basis of a literature revi...
Título: Jogos sérios para treino do comportamento humano e gestão do risco em edifícios antigos. Texto: Grande parte dos edifícios em Portugal é anterior à legislação de SCIE, mesmo a que surgiu nos anos 90 do século passado. Apesar da reabilitação em curso, ainda há muitos edifícios por reabilitar.
Firefighter Executable (Serious Game, Playable as Firefighter or Watch other Firefighters solve the scenario).
The scenario is generated randomly within a story telling case (4 rooms).
The agents Firefighters will solve the scenario, the player can watch them, or help them.
Download to read PowerPoint presentation.
This paper focuses on the process of developing a framework that features Multi-Agent System and Fire Simulation in a game engine, resulting in a gaming infrastructure which may be played as a serious game to train users for emergency situations. Scenarios are generated dynamically with different types of characters controlled by the computer, Non-...
Serious Games are being increasingly used as a tool for various applications, including social simulation. One of the domains of application is fire safety training and behaviour elicitation. Injuries and fatal casualties having its origin from fires are a concern for fire safety engineers, building managers, and emergency responders. Training buil...
Serious Games are being increasingly used as a tool for various applications, contrary to the traditional entertainment purpose. One of their application domains is fire safety. Possible injuries from fires are a dangerous safety concern for children, for instance. Another important issue is the elicitation of behavioural knowledge to design and fe...
Fire risk is the leading hazard for the safety of buildings', not only due to potential, but also concerning property/value losses. When it comes to cultural heritage, fire is by far the most destructive phenomena, and prevention is the most effective way of protection. Portugal's current fire code published in 2008, establishes the need of self pr...
Fire risk is the leading hazard for the safety of buildings', not only due to potential, but also concerning property/value losses. When it comes to cultural heritage, fire is by far the most destructive phenomena, and prevention is the most effective way of protection. Portugal's current fire code published in 2008, establishes the need of self pr...
Human behaviour knowledge is an important requirement for implementing realistic evacuation models. Although much work has been done in this field of research there are no universally accepted quantitative methods. In this paper we present a novel methodology for human behaviour elicitation that was coined SPEED (Simulation of Pedestrian and Elicit...
Understanding human behaviour in emergency evacuation from buildings is of utmost importance for fire safety designers, architects and engineers as they elaborate on strategies to improve the emergency paths to exits. This paper describes an experiment designed to elicit human behaviour when facing the urgent need of exiting a room of an unknown bu...
The dynamics of pedestrians have received less attention in transportation systems when compared to cars and other transportation means. However, its importance is inarguable and, recently, a lot of effort on research was put into this field. The use of Agent-Based Models (ABM) and known techniques such as the Social Forces Model (SFM) has fostered...
A discussion of the potential integration of serious games into the conceptual framework of artificial transportation systems focuses on behavior elicitation through peer-designed agents to model and simulate artificial societies on a participative basis.
Serious Games are increasingly used as a tool for various applications contrary to the traditional entertainment purpose. Many game engines are available, and Unity3D is another example that presents some features such as rapid prototyping and an easy learning curve. The 3D space where action takes place is sometimes hard to map into a logical memo...
Serious Games have fostered the training methods and are increasingly used for such purposes. A fire in a public building, such as a hospital, care centre or clinic, is by any point of view a dramatic event. Emergency planning is crucial to prevent and minimize damage and victims. Despite the improvement on safety measures, many occupants and emplo...
Fire keeps claiming a large number of victims in building fires. Although there are ways to minimize such events, fire drills are used to train the building occupants for emergency situations. However, organizing and implement these exercises is a complex task, and sometimes not sucessfull. Furthermore, fire drills require the mobilization of some...
Serious Games are increasingly used as a training and educational tool. Fire keeps claiming a high number of victims. Some authors allege failures during the evacuation process as the main cause that contributes for that number. Fire drills are used to train buildings' occupants for emergency situations. However, fire drills' participants often hav...
Buildings' �re modelling requires knowledge from various domains and
techniques, with a high level of complexity, from exact sciences such as
physics and mathematics, as well as from social sciences, such as psy-
chology and sociology [1]. This communication will verse two distinct
areas for building?s �re risk modelling: �re development modelling...
Pedestrian dynamics in emergency situations has become increasingly important and got the attention of both researchers and practitioners [1]. Various attempts have been made to model the behaviour of crowds in emergency situations for the validation of buildings and public envi-ronments in general. In the last decade a lot of effort was taken to e...
Issues related to crowd evacuations have become extremely important and gained the attention both of practitioners and public authorities. Un-derstanding the dynamics and the emerging behaviour of the crowd during evacuation is a challenge under any circumstances. By creating a syn-thetic population it is possible to employ agent-based modelling (A...
Smartphones are trending and most tourists already own one. Many applications exist for smartphones, in order to help tourists in their journeys. Applications available share the same problem, though: content may not be complete or updated and, they lack user feedback. The best information about a city is usually held by locals, or by recent visito...
Fire keeps claiming a large number of victims in building fires. Although there are ways to minimize such events, fire drills are used to train the building occupants for emergency situations. However, organizing and implement these exercises is a complex task, and sometimes not sucessfull. Furthermore, fire drills require the mobilization of some...
In this paper we report on a methodology to model pedestrian behaviours whilst aggregate variables are concerned, with potential applications to different situations, such as evacuating a building in emergency events. The approach consists of using UWB (ultra-wide band) based data collection to characterise behaviour in specific scenarios. From a n...
The evacuation of complex buildings is a challenge under any circumstances. Fire drills are a way of training and validating evacuation plans. However, sometimes these plans are not taken seriously by their participants. It is also difficult to have the financial and time resources required. In this scenario, serious games can be used as a tool for...
Emergency evacuation plans and evacuation drills are mandatory in public buildings in many countries. Their importance is considerable when it comes to guarantee safety and protection during a crisis. However, sometimes discrepancies arise between the goals of the plan and its outcomes, because people find it hard to take them very seriously, or du...
In recent years crowd modeling has become increasingly important both in the computer games industry and in emergency simulation. This paper discusses some aspects of what has been accomplished in this field, from social sciences to the computer implementation of modeling and simulation. Problem overview is described including some of the most comm...
In this paper we report on a methodology to model pedestrian behaviours whilst aggregate variables are concerned, with potential applications to different situations, such as evacuating a building in emergency events. The approach consists of using UWB (ultra-wide band) based data collection to characterise behaviour in specific scenarios. From a n...
The problem of evacuating crowded closed spaces, such as discotheques, public exhibition pavilions or concert houses, has become increasingly important and gained attention both from practitioners and from public authorities. A simulation implementation using NetLogo, an agent-based simulation framework that permits the quickly creation of prototyp...