Pedestrian Congestion Guidance System

ChangeBridge: Patent Grants - Business Methods (G06Q)

Published March 31st, 2026

Detected April 1st, 2026

Summary

USPTO granted patent US12591943B2 to Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories covering a congestion control system that uses sensors to measure pedestrian traffic flow and generates guidance commands for display devices to balance congestion in controlled environments. The patent names Marcel Menner and Stefano Di Cairano as inventors and contains 19 claims.

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What changed

USPTO issued Patent No. US12591943B2 to Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories for a pedestrian congestion guidance system. The system uses distributed sensors to capture real-time pedestrian congestion measurements and determines traffic flow patterns throughout a controlled environment. Based on this data, the congestion control system generates control commands transmitted to pedestrian guidance devices (such as digital signage or displays) that provide output directing pedestrians to less-congested areas.

This is a patent grant notice rather than a regulatory requirement. No compliance actions, deadlines, or penalties are associated with this issuance. Entities developing pedestrian management or crowd control technology should review the patent claims to assess potential intellectual property considerations. The filing date was July 20, 2023, under Application No. 18224163.

Source document (simplified)

← USPTO Patent Grants

Systems and methods for guiding pedestrians to balance congestion

Grant US12591943B2 Kind: B2 Mar 31, 2026

Assignee

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.

Inventors

Marcel Menner, Stefano Di Cairano

Abstract

A congestion control system configured to guide pedestrians to balance congestion throughout areas of a controlled environment is provided. The congestion control system is operatively connected to a plurality of sensors and a pedestrian guidance device. The sensors are configured to capture measurements corresponding to pedestrian congestion levels at various locations within the controlled environment. These measurements are provided to a congestion control system. The congestion control system uses the measurements to determine pedestrian traffic flow at the various locations of the controlled environment. The congestion control system then uses the measured congestion levels and the determined traffic flow to determine a control command. The control command is provided to the pedestrian guidance device to configure the device to provide a guidance output to the pedestrians of the controlled environment to balance and/or reduce congestion.