Crowd management is one of the main challenges that the Hajj authority is focused on solving. This challenge is a result of cultural diversity, illiteracy, first-time travellers, and unawareness of pilgrims that overstep the predefined guidelines. In addition, pilgrims camp with all their belongings resulting in blockage of emergency exits and disrupting the flow of thousands of pilgrims. Although the Hajj authorities have attempted to take preventive measures, by implementing pilgrim awareness projects, tragedies continued to occur.
In addition to pilgrims safety, crowds result in other challenges such as pilgrims getting lost, wander off alone, or separated from their group. This not only disrupts the pilgrim’s experience in Hajj, but also affect all pilgrims in his/her group that spend their time waiting or looking for their lost companion.
Hajj authorities recently have enforced rules to limit overcrowding by creating regulations that enforce that pilgrims be part of a campaign and that the pilgrims are guided by a guide called ‘Moutowif’. It's the Moutawif’s responsibility to keep the group together and ensure no pilgrim is left behind. Pilgrims not following instructions or not leaving the country will result in huge consequences to the Moutawif. For example, the Moutawif may not be allowed to work in future Hajj seasons.
We therefore present ALMURSHID, an Intelligent Machine Learning based system for managing overcrowding to provide Pilgrims with a safe and positive Hajj experience. Through ALMURSHID app, the Moutawif can keep track of the pilgrims in his group through their RFID braclet using an RFID reader. The Moutawif is notified if the pilgrim has begun to wander off or is getting further away from the group. Moreover, the Moutawif can check the assigned slot for his group in e.g. Jamarrat or trains and other transportation, that is allocated through novel intelligent optimization system. We build AlMoutawi with human-centered design focus, through allowing the Moutawif to be part of the Hajj and providing incentives such as rewards if pilgrims to follow instructions. Similarly, the pilgrims themselves can take part by downloading an app that notifies them of highly congested areas and rewards them with vouchers from participating restaurants/Cafes for staying with his/her group, staying away from congested areas or taking a different path. Through this app, the pilgrim can be notified if the Moutawif has ‘pinged’ him or if he/she wanders away from the group.
Such a system is highly beneficial for the Hajj Authority. Through the ALMURSHID website, the hajj admins can monitor the Hajj groups and know which groups are in what location in real-time. Through using Machine learning, this system is capable of predicting a potential overcrowding and automatically sends notifications to all Moutawif’s, allocating them a new slot or asking them to follow a certain path. A novel optimization scheduling of Jamarat is provided automatically assigning slots based on the campaigns location (e.g. street), number of old people in the group, number of children, and the distance of the group to the Jamarat.
ALMURSHID is the future, for a safe and pleasant Hajj. We envision ALMURSHID to be incorporated in the future with IoT connected trains, escalators, lifts that are fitted with RFID readers to know where each pilgrim is at all times. We develop the ALMURSHID app for the Moutawif, and pilgrim as a smartphone application that will be connected to the Hajj authority website for monitoring and alerting. Therefore, our system connects Hajj authorities with Campaigns and Moutawifs and pilgrims, for a seamless communication and collaboration for a successful Hajj Insha Allah.
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