We can't possibly know what the researchers have actually done in their study but I think it's safe to say that symmetrical action is a lot easier to wrap your

We can't possibly know what the researchers have actually done in their study but I think it's safe to say that symmetrical action is a lot easier to wrap your head around (it essentially becomes a 2D problem). That's why a staggered action should be seen as an improvement to the already existing design. When it comes to cheetahs, I bet a million bucks that it has everything to do with impact and smoothness rather than a compensation for changing direction and such. My confidence in this comes from my own experience imitating animal movement in parkour. For an example of one person running in a staggered way - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8oh5Xuy7NA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8oh5Xuy7NA. Running like that is MUCH easier on the joints than running with a symmetrical action. If you make a human gallop in a symmetrical way they'd quickly give it up for staggered action, regardless of surface or directions.