Walking is one of the fundamental forms of human gross motor activity in which spatiotemporal movement coordination can occur. While considerable body of evidence already exists on pedestrian movement coordination while walking in pairs, little is known about gait control while walking in more complex topological arrangements. To this end, this study provides some of the first evidence of spontaneous gait synchronisation while walking in a group. Nine subjects covered the total distance of 40 km at different speeds while assembled in a 3-by-3 formation. Two experimental protocols were applied in which the subjects were either not specifically asked to or specifically asked to synchronise their gait. To obtain results representative from the point of view of gait control, the movement coordination was quantified using the indirectly measured vertical component of ground reaction force, based on output from a network of wireless motion monitors.Bivariate phase difference analysis was conducted using wavelet transform, synchronisation strength measures derived from Shannon entropy, and circular statistics. A fundamental relationship describing the influence of the group walking speed on individuals' pacing frequency was established, showing a positive correlation different from that previously reported for walking in solitude. A positive correlation was found between the average synchronisation strength within a group and group's walking speed. The most persistent coordination patterns were identified for pedestrians walking front-to-back and side-by-side. Overall, the spontaneous gait synchronisation while walking in a group is relatively weak, well below the levels reported for walking in pairs.

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Little information is currently available on interpersonal gait synchronization in overground walking. This is caused by difficulties in continuous gait monitoring over many steps while ensuring repeatability of experimental conditions. These challenges could be overcome by using immersive virtual reality (VR), assuming it offers ecological validity. To this end, this study provides some of the first evidence of gait coordination patterns for overground walking dyads in VR. Six subjects covered the total distance of 27 km while walking with a pacer. The pacer was either a real human subject or their anatomically and biomechanically representative VR avatar driven by an artificial intelligence algorithm. Side-by-side and front-to-back arrangements were tested without and with the instruction to synchronize steps. Little evidence of spontaneous gait coordination was found in both visual conditions, but persistent gait coordination patterns were found in the case of intentional synchronization. Front-to-back rather than side-by-side arrangement consistently yielded in the latter case higher mean synchronization strength index. Although the mean magnitude of synchronization strength index was overall comparable in both visual conditions when walking under the instruction to synchronize steps, quantitative and qualitative differences were found which might be associated with common limitations of VR solutions.