The near-water-surface skipping motion of a vehicle is one of hot topics in the field of trans-media vehicle research in recent years. This paper focuses on the phenomenon of the skipping motion of a vehicle on the water surface. A vehicle configuration with the ability of skipping is designed and the main technical parameters are determined based on numerical simulations. It is found that the skipping process is very sensitive to the position of mass center. Then, free skipping experiments are carried out aiming at the designed structure. The results show that the model can skip near the water surface stably, which verifies the feasibility of the skipping motion. The study in this paper can provide references for the design of the trans-media vehicle in the future.
