TY - JOUR
T1 - Agent-based vulnerability assessment at airport security checkpoints
T2 - A case study on security operator behavior
AU - Janssen, Stef
AU - van den Berg, Arjan
AU - Sharpanskykh, Alexei
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Despite enormous investments in airport security, terrorists have been able to find and exploit vulnerabilities at security checkpoints. Existing vulnerability assessment methodologies struggle with accounting for human behavior, and agent-based modelling forms a promising technique to overcome this limitation. This paper investigated how the decision-making and performance of human operators can be taken into account while assessing vulnerability at an airport security checkpoint. To this end, an agent-based model was designed, in which the performance of security operators was modelled using a functional state model, while decision making was modelled using decision field theory. Passengers and an attacker that brings a weapon to the security checkpoint were also explicitly modelled as agents. Simulation results indicate that the highest skilled operators outperformed their lowest skilled counterparts on analyzing X-ray images, but performed worse on both searching luggage and performing patdowns. Furthermore, results showed that a high focus on speed of security operators leads to a decrease in luggage searches and therefore increased vulnerability. More work is needed to calibrate and validate the simulation results, but initial results are promising. The agent-based model can be used by airport regulators and managers to understand the workings of their security checkpoint better and ultimately to reduce vulnerabilities.
AB - Despite enormous investments in airport security, terrorists have been able to find and exploit vulnerabilities at security checkpoints. Existing vulnerability assessment methodologies struggle with accounting for human behavior, and agent-based modelling forms a promising technique to overcome this limitation. This paper investigated how the decision-making and performance of human operators can be taken into account while assessing vulnerability at an airport security checkpoint. To this end, an agent-based model was designed, in which the performance of security operators was modelled using a functional state model, while decision making was modelled using decision field theory. Passengers and an attacker that brings a weapon to the security checkpoint were also explicitly modelled as agents. Simulation results indicate that the highest skilled operators outperformed their lowest skilled counterparts on analyzing X-ray images, but performed worse on both searching luggage and performing patdowns. Furthermore, results showed that a high focus on speed of security operators leads to a decrease in luggage searches and therefore increased vulnerability. More work is needed to calibrate and validate the simulation results, but initial results are promising. The agent-based model can be used by airport regulators and managers to understand the workings of their security checkpoint better and ultimately to reduce vulnerabilities.
KW - Agent-based modelling
KW - Human decision making
KW - Human performance
KW - Security
KW - Vulnerability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85086097041&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.trip.2020.100139
DO - 10.1016/j.trip.2020.100139
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85086097041
VL - 5
JO - Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
JF - Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
M1 - 100139
ER -