The key mechanism of human bi-legged walking and running is revealed

BEIJING, Feb. 26 (Xinhua Zhang Mengran) According to a biometrics study published online on the 26th in the British journal Nature, a joint team from the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and other countries has revealed for the first time the key mechanisms for human bipedal evolution to enable humans to walk and run, a discovery that deepens the understanding of human bipedal evolution and will directly help improve mechanical foot design, thus paving the way for "physical flexibility" robots.
in the realization of elegant and natural walking, mechanical foot and robot performance has been unsatisfactory, gait movement coordination and mechanical foot dexterity, has also been a problem in the industry. But it's easy for humans, who have evolved hard arches that are essential for effective upright walking, but strangely, the feet of other primates, such as chimpanzees, gorillas and macaques, are relatively flexible and flat. One question that biometric researchers have been debating is how the structure of human bipedals makes feet hard. Most studies have focused on the inner bow (MLA) from the heel to the foot, without considering the role of the foot crossbow (TTA).
to see if TTA would make biceptal hard, the team tested human biceptal bending. The results showed that more than 40% of the hardness of the foot originated from TTA. Folding a piece of paper from the middle hardens it vertically, and TTA has a similar effect on the foot.
researchers also studied the evolution of TTA in a variety of primates, including extinct ancient humans, and found that only humans fully evolved MLA and TTA.
findings suggest that the two adjacent arches work together to make the foot vertically hard. In addition, human foot has evolved over many stages to allow humans to walk and run efficiently.
The mechanism makes clear that in the future it could be used directly for the design of mechanical feet, human-like prosthetics and leg-robotic robots," University of Queensland researchers Glenn Richterwalk and Luke Kelly said in a press release accompanying the paper.