A multiscale perspective on the constructal characteristics of human mobility. Comment on 'The emergence of design in pedestrian dynamics: Locomotion, self-organization, walking paths and constructal law' by Antonio F. Miguel

摘要

The obvious importance that movement-the capability of many living beings to change their location deliberately -has played in the evolution of species in general and in the emergence of bipedal humans in particular has fascinated researchers. From Hippocrates and Galen - "Walking is man's best medicine" - to Leonardo Da Vinci and Albert Einstein, different aspects of human movement have been examined in numerous, often very creative, ways. For gait, muscular perfusion, collective behaviour of large groups of individuals moving and other aspects of movement, investigators have tried to identify basic mechanisms and processes, to understand governing laws and to use that understanding for prediction and design. Moreover, further abstraction has been attempted in efforts to correlate, if possible, such findings with other types of animal motion, swimming and flying.