Employing Robotics for the Biomechanical Validation of a Prosthetic Flipper for Sea Turtles as a Substitute for Animal Clinical Trials

Sea turtles are a keystone species for the ocean’s ecosystem, with all currently being listed as endangered. Such threat is mainly due to human factors such fishing net entanglement. This entanglement often comes at expense of losing pectoral flipper. The reduction in sea turtle’s survival odds upon flipper significant concern. issue extends beyond individual animals, potential extinction could have detrimental effects on ocean health and subsequently disrupt our lifestyles. In this work, help robotics, we tested suitability prosthetic that lost Testing sea-turtle-inspired robot helped demonstrate flipper’s performance without clinical trials live animals. showed closely mimic downstroke upstroke, allowing animal regain control roll, pitch, yaw, despite absence anatomical joints related muscles. Additionally, swim speed tests provided an average 0.487 m/s while dragging 6 m cable give calculated maximum 0.618 m/s, coming close wild 0.6 m/s. Our aspiration findings from study will pave way open-source implant design, empowering veterinary professionals globally aid injured turtles. Furthermore, research promises inspire additional animal-based robotic designs, advancing technologies geared towards assisting other animals distress.