Touch away the pain – Pain relief through artificial tactile stimulation

We propose the development of a garment with actuating capabilities, specifically designed to alleviate pain through artificial tactile stimulation.

The project´s primary objective is to advance our understanding of interactions between touch and pain within the nervous system. This will be enabled by creating wearables capable of delivering programmable touch.

Given the current inadequacy of treatments for patients experiencing long-term pain, this research seeks to provide innovative interventions based on tactile stimulation.It has been experimentally shown that pain can be reduced with human-to-human affective touch but the neural mechanisms and optimal touch delivery are unknown.

The use of machine-to-human touch is a convenient alternative.

The proposed wearable technology will contribute to the development of novel therapeutic methods, offering a patient-controlled, non-invasive, and potentially side-effect-free solution.

Likewise, the technology development will benefit from real-world targets, boosting other applications.The team includes experts in pain, neurophysiology, actuators, textiles, and biomechanics.

The project involves experimental studies, with healthy volunteers and patients suffering from long-term pain, to optimize touch delivery, evaluate pain modulation, and understand neural mechanisms.

Tasks include developing soft actuators, electromechanically active fabrics and garments, and modelling of actuator-garment-skin interactions.