The ShellMEch project is a collaboration between TUDelft, Flextension Foundation and Laevo BV, partly funded by Technology Foundation STW in a ‘High-Tech Systems and Materials’ (HTSM) call. The project, carried out by PhD candidate Giuseppe Radaelli, and for which a second PhD position is still vacant, aims to develop flexible shell structures. Shells, thin curved material bodies, which are normally designed as stiff structures for e.g. civil engineering or the aerospace sector, are now applied as moveable, flexible mechanisms to realise multiple functions.

The newly developed structures must replace mechanisms that usually consist out of trusses, joints, springs etc. In body-support  devices it is crucial that these mechanisms can be hidden underneath clothing and are noticed as little as possible by the user and it’s environment.

That’s why within the ShellMech project we will  develop functional prototypes for e.g. body supports for Duchenne patients (in collaboration with A-Gear Project) or body supports for prevention of work related back-injuries (in collaboration with Laevo BV).