Exit selection process during crowd evacuation, modelled on the cockroach emergent behaviour

Groups of living creatures are often faced with searching for resources and choosing between one or more alternatives of resource site. Such a process is connected either with calm food acquirement or looking for a safe place to hide from danger. The question is, what kind of criteria are taken into consideration and what induces the collective decision, when all individuals in a swarm are equal. This paper identifies a simple mechanism of shelter selection by cockroach herd, whereby an emergent decision is made with limited information and without centralization of information processing or comparison of available solutions. The mechanism leads to the optimal benefit for both a group and an individual. The proposed model activates swarm self-organization and is independent of species, therefore, a possible application to human crowd control has been studied.