Many living beings show the ability and necessity to develop invertible, tubular structures to enable additional functions temporarily. The biological archetypes always demonstrate a high change of volume of the structure between an inactive and active state. This makes the principle interesting for many technical applications, where a certain geometry or an additional volume has to be generated situationally for a task and can only be accepted temporarily, for example, in minimally invasive robotics. A possibility was sought to transfer the archetype into the technical context and to evaluate geometric-constructive dependencies based on an inversion of the structure. The result is a practicable design for repeatedly invertible net structures, which can be used for products with temporary additional functions and volumes.

Prosthesis treatment requires the close interaction of different actors. In fitting prostheses to patients, special attention is given to the manufacturing of the socket. The continuous development of the technologies involved in the fitting and optimization of prostheses is shown in the literature. The assessment of orthopedic technicians and their influence in the process is thus far largely unexplored. Ten orthopedic technicians were interviewed about the socket fitting process after transfemoral amputation. The research goal was to clarify the socket treatment process with regards to the German context. The results showed that the orthopedic technicians focussing on the patient during the fitting process. This study underlines the importance of interaction and empathy. Volume fluctuations are decisive within the treatment process and are interactively influenced by various factors. Furthermore, the research emphasizes the need for appropriate assistive technologies and the potential for the further development of existing systems.