People walking normally, or tottering in high heels, and ostriches strutting -- they all exert the same forces on the ground despite their very differently shaped feet, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. The finding suggests that prosthetic lower limbs and robots’ legs could be made more efficient by making them less human-like and more like the prosthetics used by ‘Blade Runner’ Oscar Pistorius.
