Natalie van der Wal

Delft University of Technology | TU · Department of Multi Actor Systems

Smart grids are typically modelled as cyber–physical power systems, with limited consideration given to the social aspects. Specifically, traditional power system studies tend to overlook the behaviour of stakeholders, such as end‐users. However, the impact of end‐users and their behaviour on power system operation and response to disturbances is s...

Emergency evacuation is viewed as a common strategy adopted during the disaster preparedness stage of evacuation to ensure the safety of potentially affected populations. In emergency evacuation studies, soft computing approaches and methodologies have been widely used to support effective decision-making, providing robust and low-cost solutions. T...

“How does culture, in combination with cues, settings and affiliation, influence response-phase behaviour and time and total evacuation time?”. A questionnaire and an agent-based model for a case study of a library evacuation in Czech Republic, Poland, Turkey and the UK have been developed to answer this question. Our questionnaire, conducted among...

Emergency services and utilities need appropriate planning tools to analyze and improve infrastructure and community resilience to disasters. Recognized as a key metric of community resilience is the social well-being of a community during a disaster, which is made up of mental and physical social health. Other factors influencing community resilie...

In order to explore the impacts of crowd intervention strategies on indoor respiratory exposure risks during major pandemics, a variety of crowd motion scenarios were established in general indoor conditions based on an improved pedestrian dynamics model and respiratory infection probability model. Then, multi-agent simulation technology was utiliz...

According to the Department of Energy, demand response provides an opportunity for end-users to play a significant role in the efficiency, reliability, resilience, and sustainability of a power grid. This is made possible owing to the existence of storage devices and diversity of energy sources at the customer level and the advent of the Internet o...

To improve communication during emergencies, this research introduces an agent-based modeling (ABM) method to test the effect of psychological emergency communication strategies on evacuation performance. We follow a generative social science approach in which agent-based simulations allow for testing different candidate solutions. Unlike tradition...

Emergencies such as fires and terrorist attacks pose risks of injuries and fatalities, which can be exacerbated by delayed, ill-informed, or unmanaged responses. Effective emergency communication strategies could be used to better inform people and reduce these risks. This research analyzes videos of real-world emergencies to: (a) identify people’s...

In the literature, smart grids are modeled as cyber-physical power systems without considering the computational social aspects. However, end-users are playing a key role in their operation and response to disturbances via demand response and distributed energy resources. Therefore, due to the critical role of active and passive end-users and the i...

Evacuation drills are generally the main mechanism for improving or measuring occupant performance in emergency situations, but their effectiveness is often hard to measure, and there is limited evidence for sustained training benefits. However, innovations in technology (e.g., augmented/virtual reality, novel sensors and wearable tech) offer (when...

In this paper we investigate the resiliency planning of interdependent electric power systems and emergency services. We investigate the effect of the level of empathy, cooperation, coordination, flexibility, and experience of individuals on their mental well-being. Furthermore, we explore the impact of the information that is provided by emergency...

Contemporary ergonomics problems are increasing in scale, ambition, and complexity. Understanding and creating solutions for these multi-faceted, dynamic, and systemic problems challenges traditional methods. Computational modelling approaches can help address this methodological shortfall. We illustrate this potential by describing applications of...

This article presents a glossary of terms that are frequently used in research on human crowds. This topic is inherently multidisciplinary as it includes work in and across computer science, engineering, mathematics, physics, psychology and social science, for example. We do not view the glossary presented here as a collection of finalised and form...

Rationale: Laughter-inducing therapies are being applied more regularly in the last decade, and the number of scientific reports of their beneficial effects is growing. Laughter-inducing therapies could be cost-effective treatments for different populations as a complementary or main therapy. A systematic review and meta-analysis has not yet been...

This research introduces a cognitive computational model of emotional contagion in a crowd of soccer supporters. It is useful for: (1) better understanding of the emotional contagion processes and (2) further development into a predictive and advising application for soccer stadium managers to enhance and improve the ambiance during the soccer game...

Human evacuation experiments can trigger distress, be unethical and present high costs. As a solution, computer simulations can predict the effectiveness of new emergency management procedures. This paper applies multi-agent simulation to measure the influence of staff members with diverse training levels on evacuation time. A previously developed...

Human evacuation experiments can trigger distress, be unethical and present high costs. As a solution, computer simulations can predict the effectiveness of new emergency management procedures. This paper applies multi-agent simulation to measure the influence of staff members with diverse training levels on evacuation time. A previously developed...

There is growing evidence that the intermittent nature of mind wandering episodes and mood have a pronounced influence on trial-to-trial variability in performance. Nevertheless, the temporal dynamics and significance of such lapses in attention remains inadequately understood. Here, we hypothesize that the dynamics of fluctuations in sustained att...

This work proposes an agent-based evacuation model that incorporates social aspects in the behaviour of the agents and validates it on a benchmark. It aims to fill the gap in this research field with mainly evacuation models without psychological and social factors such as group decision making and other social interactions. The model was compared...

Building useful and efficient models and tools for a varied audience, such as evacuation simulators for scientists, engineers and crisis managers, can be tricky. Even good models can fail in providing information when the user’s tools for the model are scarce of resources. The aim of this work is to propose a new tool that covers the most required...

Airline passengers can get stranded in an airport due to a number of reasons. As a consequence, they might get frustrated. Frustration leads to misbehaving if a given individual is frustrated enough, according to the literature. In this work, an agent-based model of stranded passengers in an airport departure area is presented. Structured simulatio...

A fire incident at a transport hub can cost many lives. To save lives, effective crisis management and prevention measures need to be taken. In this project, the effect of cultural factors in managing and preventing emergencies in public transport systems is analysed. An agent–based model of an evacuating crowd was created. Socio-cultural factors t...

Train passengers can get stranded due to a variety of events, such as a delay, technical malfunctioning or a natural disaster. Stranded passengers can get frustrated, which could escalate in misbehaviours. Examples are verbal and physical violence or dangerous behaviours such as opening emergency exits and walking in unauthorized areas. In this wor...

A Virtual Reality based training can be an interesting method to teach crowd managers and emergency responders how to act in emergency situations under pressure. Compared to watching Two-Dimensional Video, Virtual Reality is assumed to induce stronger emotions and a more real-life experience of the emergency situation. To test this assumption, sixt...

This paper introduces the design of an agent-based leadership support system exploiting a computational model for development of individuals or groups. It is to be used, for example, as a basis for systems to support a group leader in the development of individual group members or a group as a whole. Using a computational model for Situational Lead...

This paper introduces a cognitive computational model of emotion contagion in a crowd of soccer supporters. It is useful for: (1) better understanding of the emotion contagion processes and (2) further development into a predictive and advising application for soccer stadium managers to enhance and improve the ambiance during the soccer game for sa...

Future applications for the detection of attention can be helped by the development and validation of single electrode brain computer interfaces that are small and user-friendly. The two objectives of this study were: to (1) understand the correlates of attention regulation as detected with the Myndplay Brainband XL and (2) compare these to existin...

Wireless brain computer interfaces (BCI’s) are promising for new intelligent applications in which emotions are detected by measuring brain activity. Applications, such as serious games and video game therapy, are measuring and using the user’s emotional state in order to determine the intensity level of the game. This experimental study was design...

To avoid the development of negative emotion in their teams, team leaders may benefit from being aware of the emotional dynamics of the team members. To this end, the use of intelligent computer systems that analyze emotional processes within teams is a promising direction. As a first step toward the development of such systems, this paper uses an...

Although internet-based treatments have been proven to be effective, adherence to these interventions is generally low. Tailoring is seen as an important aspect of any form of effective health communication and this is used in the majority of web-based interventions. The way to measure adherence remains a concern, additionally, we do not actually k...

Background In May 2013, the iTunes and Google Play stores contained 23,490 and 17,756 smartphone applications (apps) categorized as Health and Fitness, respectively. The quality of these apps, in terms of applying established health behavior change techniques, remains unclear.Methods The study sample was identified through systematic searches in iT...

To avoid the development of negative emotion in their teams, team leaders may benefit from being aware of the emotional dynamics of the team members. To this end, the use of intelligent computer systems that analyze emotional processes within teams is a promising direction. As a first step towards the development of such systems, this paper uses an...

The goals of this research were: (1) to develop a system that will automatically measure changes in the emotional state of a speaker by analyzing his/her voice, (2) to validate this system with a controlled experiment and (3) to visualize the results to the speaker in 2-d space. Natural (non-acted) human speech of 77 (Dutch) speakers was collected...

A computational agent model of social and cognitive influences on physical activity based on Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory is proposed. The utility of this model is twofold. First, it is used to run simulations of many different scenarios, that cannot be manipulated easily in reality, and that can possibly lead to new hypotheses about how socia...

Social decision making under stressful circumstances may involve strong emotions and contagion from others. Recent developments in Social Neuroscience have revealed neural mechanisms by which social contagion of cognitive and emotional states can be realised. In this paper, based on these mechanisms, an agent-based computational model is proposed....

Collective decision making involves on the one hand individual mental states such as beliefs, emotions and intentions, and on the other hand interaction with others with possibly different mental states. Achieving a satisfactory common group decision on which all agree requires that such mental states are adapted to each other by social interaction...

Caring for a depressed person may have substantial impact on the health and well-being of the caregiver. In this paper, an ambient agent model is proposed that supports caregivers, to prevent or decrease the burden in them and promote their well-being. The agent integrates a domain model of the functioning of the caregiver and the care recipient an...

The goal of this research was to develop a system that will automatically measure changes in the emotional state of a speaker, by analyzing his/her voice. Natural (non-acted) human speech of 77 (Dutch) speakers was collected and manually splitted into speech units. Three recordings per speaker were collected, in which he/she was in a positive, neut...

Communication and inter-organizational coordination in crisis management are of uttermost important for all processes and can lead to fast and effective averting or ending of a crisis situation. In this paper, a real world incident of a fire in the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol train tunnel was formalised, based on a public inquiry report, and subsequ...

This chapter introduces an agent-based support model for group emotion, used by ambient systems that support teams in their emotion dynamics. Using model-based reasoning, an ambient agent analyzes the team's emotion level for present and future time points. In case the team's emotion level is found to become deficient, the ambient agent provides su...

Through social interaction, the mood of a person can affect the mood of others. The speed and intensity of such mood contagion can differ, depending on the persons and the type and intensity of their interactions. Especially in close relationships the negative mood of a depressed person can have a serious impact on the moods of the ones close to hi...

During emergency scenarios, the large number of possible influences inter se between cognitive and affective states of the individuals involved makes it difficult to analyse their (collective) behaviour. To study the behaviour of collectives of individuals during emergencies, this paper proposes a methodology based on formalisation of empirical tra...

In this paper an agent-based analysis is made of patterns in crowd behaviour, in particular to simulate a real-life incident that took place on May 4, 2010 in Amsterdam. As a basis, an existing agent-based model is used for contagion of emotions, beliefs and intentions. From available video material and witness reports, useful empirical data were e...

This paper introduces a neurologically inspired computational model for the dynamics and diffusion of agent states within groups. The model combines an individual model based on Damasio’s Somatic Marker Hypothesis with mutual effects of group members on each other via mirroring of individual states such as emotions, beliefs and intentions. The obta...

Collective decision making involves on the one hand individual mental states such as beliefs, emotions and intentions, and on the other hand interaction with others with possibly different mental states. Achieving a satisfactory common group decision on which all agree requires that such mental states are adapted to each other by social interaction...

The spread of information and emotion within groups is studied in models of social diffusion. Evidence has been found that the emotional states of humans affect their information processing abilities, and hence, may affect the spread of information as well. This paper introduces an agent-based model that simulates the spread of information and emot...

This paper introduces a neurologically inspired computational model for the emergence of group decisions. The model combines an individual decision making model based on Damasio’s Somatic Marker Hypothesis with mutual effects of group members on each other via mirroring of emotions and intentions. The obtained model shows how this combination of as...

Few studies describing caregiver stress and coping have focused on the effects of informal caregiving for depressed care recipients. The major purpose of this paper was to investigate the dynamics of the informal care support and receipt interactions among caregivers and care recipients using a computational modelling approach. Important concepts i...

To avoid the occurrence of spirals of negative emotion in their teams, team leaders may benefit from intelligent agent systems that analyze the emotional dynamics of the team members. As a first step in developing such agents, this paper uses an agent-based approach to formalize and simulate emotion contagion spirals within groups. The computationa...

This paper introduces an agent-based support model for group emotion, to be used by ambient systems to support teams in their emotion dynamics. Using model-based reasoning, an ambient agent analyzes the team's emotion level for present and future time points. In case the team's emotion level is found to become deficient, the ambient agent provides...

In recent times researchers have initiated investigating emotion as a collective property of groups, emphasizing the influence of combined emotions among group members on group processes. Within groups humans recognize and react emotionally to expressions of emotions of other group members. This paper uses a multi-agent-based approach to formalize...

This paper introduces an agent-based support model for leadership, which can be used by an ambient system to support a leader in the development of his team member(s). Using model-based reasoning, an intelligent agent analyses the development level of an employee and provides support to the leader by proposing effective leadership behaviour. Simula...

This paper introduces an agent-based support model for group development and leadership, to be used by ambient systems to support a group leader in the development of group members. Using model- based reasoning, an ambient agent analyses the development level of the group (member) and provides support to the group by proposing the most effective le...