But this is not a good model, because the speed is set treadmill. Therefore, the Laboratory of Movement Ohio State University (USA) put people in long corridors and walkways, and forced them to go 250 meters for a preset time.
Overall, the result was the same: at a speed of 2 m / s the man went, and closer to 3 m / s, the transition to running. The most interesting – what happened in between these speeds. In the "twilight zone", as they called her co-author Manoj Srinivasan, people tend to mix gaits, constantly striving to save energy.
Perhaps if the engineers will program the biped robot to minimize energy a priority, they will be able to walk and run as much as men.
The study is published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
Prepared according to ScienceNOW.