Balancing with Noise and Delay

Motivated by recent studies in human balance control, we study a delayed random walk with an unstable fixed point. It is observed that the random walker moves away from the unstable fixed point more slowly than is observed in the absence of delay. It is shown that, for given a noise level, there exists an optimal delay to achieve the longest first passage time. Our observations support recent demonstrations that noise has a beneficial role for balance control and emphasize that predicitive strategies are not necessary to transiently control balance.