Skywalker Takes to the Sky—and the Ground

This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore.

A new air-ground vehicle, appropriately named Skywalker, is able to seamlessly transition between ground and air modes, outperforming competing air-ground vehicles in several key performance measures. Skywalker was put to the test in a series of experiments, which were described in a study published 14 March in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

Airborne vehicles are undeniably convenient, offering great mobility, but they require significantly more energy than ground vehicles. Meanwhile,…