Patent ID: 6871686

Claim:
An articulated collapsible structure comprising: (a) a plurality of beams formed from substantially incompressible material, each of said beams having a length, an elongated face partly bounded by two parallel straight edges, said edges being parallel to said length, and two side surfaces, each of said side surfaces meeting said elongated face at one of said edges; and (b) a stretch-resistant connecting arrangement pivotally interconnecting said beams at said edges of said elongated faces sequentially in side-by-side relation with said lengths parallel, said connecting arrangement allowing pivotal relative movement between adjacent ones of said beams while maintaining adjacent ones of said edges of said adjacent beams in substantially close relation, such that the structure can be transformed between a deployed state in which at least part of said side surfaces of adjacent ones of said beams are in abutment so as to form a self-supporting structure, and a rolled state in which said side surfaces are separated and the structure assumes a generally cylindrical rolled state, wherein said side surfaces of each of a plurality of said beams are non-parallel such that said self-supporting structure has an at least partially curved profile.