This seminar is being presented in preparation for a presentation at the ICRA 2015 conference which will be held in Seattle. The format of the presentation will thus be a 3-minute spotlight talk, followed by a 40-minute interactive discussion session.

With the aging of the population which can lead to an increase in the number of disabled people, robotics for rehabilitation have become more and more important. The presentation deals with the design of a locomotion interface for gait simulation and interaction with a virtual environment. The proposed mechanical interface is based on two planar two-degree-of-freedom belt-driven mechanisms which fully decouple the vertical and horizontal motion of two supporting footplates. Force sensors are mounted under the footplates in order to move the end effectors according to the user’s intentions. The user’s feet are rigidly attached to the footplates but a system of hinges allows an additional unactuated two-degree-of-freedom motion. Preliminary experiments are reported in order to demonstrate the capability of the locomotion interface for gait simulation.