Development of a water ski simulator for indoor training with proprioceptive and visual feedback

This paper reports the preliminary development of a water-ski simulator for indoor training. Compared to existing training systems, the proposed simulator is capable of recreating a more realistic and immersive simulation experience, by providing both a proprioceptive and visual feedback to the practicing skier. In addition, it allows to practically test any desired skiing manoeuvre, since the ski movements are generated by means of a six degrees-of-freedom pneumatically-actuated hexapod, whose motion can be arbitrarily programmed in space.