Article: Modelling of dynamic coverage process by quadrotor swarms for sudden abnormal crowd evacuation Journal: International Journal of Information and Communication Technology (IJICT) 2026 Vol.27 No.67 pp.89 - 110 Abstract: This study addresses the challenge of achieving real-time and adaptive aerial coverage over crowds during sudden abnormal evacuations - a highly nonlinear and dynamic process. This paper proposes a physics-aware hybrid modelling framework that integrates a microscopic social force model for simulating crowd movements with an enhanced artificial potential field approach for quadrotor swarm guidance. Central to our method is a nonlinear function that maps real-time crowd density into a spatially varying potential field, along with a dynamic balancing strategy to avoid local optima. Extensive simulations based on real pedestrian trajectory datasets show that the proposed framework achieves an average coverage efficiency of 82.4% and a recovery latency of only 4.3 seconds following evacuation onset, outperforming state-of-the-art methods in coverage persistence, responsiveness, and energy efficiency. These results validate the framework's capability to support adaptive monitoring in emergency crowd management scenarios. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Modelling of dynamic coverage process by quadrotor swarms for sudden abnormal crowd evacuation

Authors: Dongqi Liu

Addresses: School of Public Safety Management, Liaoning Police College, Dalian, 116036, China

Abstract: This study addresses the challenge of achieving real-time and adaptive aerial coverage over crowds during sudden abnormal evacuations - a highly nonlinear and dynamic process. This paper proposes a physics-aware hybrid modelling framework that integrates a microscopic social force model for simulating crowd movements with an enhanced artificial potential field approach for quadrotor swarm guidance. Central to our method is a nonlinear function that maps real-time crowd density into a spatially varying potential field, along with a dynamic balancing strategy to avoid local optima. Extensive simulations based on real pedestrian trajectory datasets show that the proposed framework achieves an average coverage efficiency of 82.4% and a recovery latency of only 4.3 seconds following evacuation onset, outperforming state-of-the-art methods in coverage persistence, responsiveness, and energy efficiency. These results validate the framework's capability to support adaptive monitoring in emergency crowd management scenarios.

Keywords: quadrotor swarm; dynamic coverage control; crowd evacuation simulation; physics-informed modelling; emergency monitoring system.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICT.2026.154211

International Journal of Information and Communication Technology, 2026 Vol.27 No.67, pp.89 - 110

Received: 10 Feb 2026
Accepted: 14 Mar 2026
Published online: 16 Jun 2026 *

Title: Modelling of dynamic coverage process by quadrotor swarms for sudden abnormal crowd evacuation

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