JuPedSim — The Complete Guide: Free Pedestrian and Crowd Evacuation Simulation
JuPedSim is an open-source library from Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany for simulating pedestrian movement. You work in Python: define the geometry of the space as polygons, place people, set destinations and exits, and run. The result is a complete trajectory of every person over time.
JuPedSim
Forschungszentrum Jülich
Simulation of pedestrian and crowd movement through buildings and spaces, for evacuation planning, fire safety and crowd-flow studies.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Several movement models — different models of pedestrian behaviour and collision avoidance.
- Flexible geometry — rooms, corridors, stairs and exits as polygons.
- Routes and destinations — waypoints, waiting areas and alternative exits.
- Detailed results — every person’s position at every moment, for density, speed and evacuation time.
- Python automation — running dozens of scenarios and comparing them.
What to know
JuPedSim is a research and engineering tool, not a program with a full graphical interface, so basic Python knowledge is needed. If results are to support a submission to the authorities, check them against local fire-safety guidance and document your assumptions. A companion library, PedPy, analyses the trajectories.
Related tools
For fire and smoke simulation to complement the evacuation analysis — FDS + Smokeview. For smoke and airflow between rooms — CONTAM. For movement and transport at city scale — MATSim.
FDS and Smokeview
NIST
Fire and smoke movement simulation in buildings — the world standard in fire safety engineering.
Get it from the vendor
CONTAM
NIST
Airflow and contaminant dispersion inside buildings — ventilation, pressures, smoke and CO2.
Get it from the vendor
MATSim
ETH Zurich / TU Berlin
Agent-based transport simulation at city scale — activities, routes and mode choice.
Get it from the vendor
SUMO
German Aerospace Center (DLR) / Eclipse
Microscopic traffic simulation — every vehicle modelled individually on a real road network.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
JuPedSim gives safety engineers a serious research-grade tool for checking evacuation and crowd flow. Open source and completely free, including for commercial use.