Accelerating fuzzy cellular automata for modeling crowd dynamics

•Graphics Processing Unit Acceleration of Fuzzy Cellular Automata for crowd evacuation.•Significant speed up of Fuzzy Cellular Automata execution of two orders of magnitude.•Fuzzy logic velocity adjustments and selection of direction experimentally proven efficient.•Incorporation of psychological-impact feature in Fuzzy Cellular Automata model.•Speed and flow vs. time diagrams for validation of model’s successful response.