How Fast Can a Bipedal vs. Quadrupedal Human Run?

3 months ago 2

doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2016.00056. eCollection 2016.

Affiliations

Ryuta Kinugasa et al. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2016.

Abstract

Usain Bolt holds the current world record in the 100-m run, with a running time of 9.58 s, and has been described as the best human sprinter in history. However, this raises questions concerning the maximum human running speed, such as "Can the world's fastest men become faster still?" The correct answer is likely "Yes." We plotted the historical world records for bipedal and quadrupedal 100-m sprint times according to competition year. These historical records were plotted using several curve-fitting procedures. We found that the projected speeds intersected in 2048, when for the first time, the winning quadrupedal 100-m sprint time could be lower, at 9.276 s, than the winning bipedal time of 9.383 s. Video analysis revealed that in quadrupedal running, humans employed a transverse gallop with a small angular excursion. These results suggest that in the future, the fastest human on the planet might be a quadrupedal runner at the 2048 Olympics. This may be achieved by shifting up to the rotary gallop and taking longer strides with wide sagittal trunk motion.

Keywords: 100-m sprint time; biomechanics; historical race data; quadrupedal running; trend extrapolation.

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Figures

Figure 1 Figure 1

The 100-m world records for quadrupedal (red points) and bipedal (gray points) human athletes with superimposed best-fit lines and coefficients of determination. The lines are extrapolated, and the available points are used to superimpose 95% confidence intervals (dotted lines). The projections intersect in 2048, when the quadrupedal 100-m sprint world record will be lower, at 9.276 s, than the bipedal world record of 9.383 s.

Figure 2 Figure 2

Diagrams of gait (top illustration), angular excursion, and stance distance (bottom illustration) during quadrupedal running in humans (A) and cheetahs (B). On the gait diagram (top illustration), the black thick lines represent the stance periods for each limb during a complete stride. LH, left hind; LF, left fore; RF, right fore; RH, right hind. On the sequential line graph (bottom illustration), the angular excursion of the upper arm (pink) and thigh (blue) segments, and stance distance (gray) are compared over the course of one stride cycle between the humans (n = 6) and cheetahs (n = 1). *P < 0.05 vs. 0% gait cycle.

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References

    1. Alexander R. M. (2006). Principles of Animal Locomotion. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
    1. Barrow J. D. (2012). How Usain Bolt can run faster – effortlessly. Significance 9, 9–12.10.1111/j.1740-9713.2012.00552.x - DOI
    1. Bertram J. E. A., Gutmann A. (2009). Motions of the running horse and cheetah revisited: fundamental mechanics of the transverse and rotary gallop. J. R. Soc. Interface 6, 549–559.10.1098/rsif.2008.0328 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Biewener A. A. (2003). Animal Locomotion. New York: Oxford University Press.
    1. Culha U., Saranli U. (2011). “Quadrupedal bounding with an actuated spinal joint,” in 2011 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Shanghai: IEEE), 1392–1397.
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