Lola is a sea turtle missing one of her front flippers, causing her to swim improperly and hence unable to survive alone. This project initiated the development of a prosthetic to imitate Lola’s healthy flipper to help her swim more effectively. Flipper blades of various shapes were designed using CAD, fabricated with a 3D printing and molding process, and tested in a wind tunnel. An attachment mechanism was designed with consideration of fitting Lola’s residual limb. Shoulder loadings that Lola can apply were analyzed and compared with the required force for swimming in water. This work paves the way for the development of a biomimetic flipper to help amputated turtles across the world swim with better efficiency and fewer injuries.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Varela, Samantha
• Liang, Vivian
• Wong, Iok Teng

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-042816-150116

Advisor

• Savilonis, Brian James
• Liu, Yuxiang

Year

• 2016

Date created

• 2016-04-28

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Mechanical Engineering
• Interdisciplinary
• Biomedical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Last modified

• 2021-02-02