The question motiving this project was a version of a more general question that has captivated the minds of scientists and lay people alike. How does nature do it? The natural world around us is full of inventive solutions to problems that we humans find difficult to replicate. Unlocking these mysteries could lead to wholly unknown benefits to human beings and the creatures we share this planet with.

The goal of this project was to build a moving model of a sea lion foreflipper to help understand how they swim so well. The aquatic animal kingdom is full of impressive swimmers like dolphins and eels, but unlike those creatures, sea lions generate most of their thrust using their foreflippers. The question we wanted to understand is how? Specifically in the domain of fluid dynamics, how do the foreflippers generate thrust. And how could certain poses of the foreflipper affect that thrust? Maybe one day these answers could help inform the design of more efficient sub marine vehicles.

To get started on the design, we needed a digital model of a foreflipper.

Unlike most sea mammals, sea lions produce thrust with their foreflippers rather than their tails. Building a model of the foreflipper that is capable of similar motion to a real sea lion foreflipper can help us run tests to learn how they swim so efficiently! Maybe one day this could inform the design of some of our submarines or ships.