CARLA-Air¶

Development line: project:carla-air · thread carla-air-release
Last event: 2026-04-03 · 1 dated since 2026-04-03 · Researched: 2026-09-05 · confidence: medium

What it is¶

CARLA-Air is an open air-ground simulation environment for embodied AI, navigation, perception, and RL researchers.

• Unified world, combines air and ground actors in one simulation.
• Synchronous sensors, capture feeds across both platforms at the same time.
• Two Python APIs, CARLA for cars and AirSim for multicopters.

Current public release is v0.1.7. Town10HD requires about 8 GB VRAM, and coordinate calibration depends on the map. It beats running CARLA and AirSim as separate processes when drone and car need a shared world.

Development line¶

• 2026-04-03 — CARLA-Air GitHub repository linked. On 2026-04-03, the CARLA-Air development line linked the project's GitHub repository, louis zeng CN/CarlaAir. This provides a dated public-source reference for the project. Available evidence does not show a release, version, change set, or repository contents.

What changed¶

• 2026-03-19 — Public release v0.1.6: single process CARLA 0.9.16 and AirSim, autotraffic, collision toggle, and ground clamping.
• 2026-03-24 — Release v0.1.7 fixed VSync and traffic stability, adding one-click setup, flight recording, and coordinate documentation; compatibility with v0.1.6 scripts and configurations is preserved.
• 2026-04-03 — Project link recorded; primary source has no changelog entry for this date, so we cannot treat it as a new release.
• 2026-04-10 — Published a Windows source code branch.
• 2026-04-16 — Prebuilt binary package v0.1.7 became available for Windows 11 x86_64.
• 2026-04-17 — Published project website.
• 2026-04-20 — Added minimal ROS 2 Humble examples for car and drone sensors, with RViz 2.

How to use this¶

As of 2026-04-03, use the linked GitHub repository as a candidate source for CARLA-Air, verifying its contents and relevance before relying on it.

1. Download and unpack the prebuilt Linux or Windows package; for a first run on Linux, use supported Ubuntu 20.04/22.04. — https://github.com/louiszengCN/CarlaAir
2. In the v0.1.7 directory, run bash env_setup/setup_env.sh, then bash env_setup/test_env.sh, and activate the carlaAir conda environment. — https://github.com/louiszengCN/CarlaAir/releases
3. Run ./CarlaAir.sh Town10HD; wait until CARLA is ready on localhost:2000 and AirSim on localhost:41451. — https://github.com/louiszengCN/CarlaAir/blob/main/CarlaAir_Release/guide/Quick-Start.md
4. Test both APIs with separate carla.Client and airsim.MultirotorClient clients, then start with examples/quick_start_showcase.py. — https://github.com/louiszengCN/CarlaAir/blob/main/CarlaAir_Release/guide/Quick-Start.md

Best practices¶

• Keep asynchronous mode for interactive control; for datasets, replay, and recording, use fixed-step synchronous mode and sync Traffic Manager. — https://github.com/louiszengCN/CarlaAir/blob/main/CarlaAir_Release/guide/FAQ.md
• Always restore the world to asynchronous mode in finally, so the server does not hang waiting for world.tick() after script completion. — https://github.com/louiszengCN/CarlaAir/blob/main/CarlaAir_Release/guide/FAQ.md
• Recalibrate CARLA-AirSim offsets when switching maps; the release formula is calibrated for Town10HD. — https://github.com/louiszengCN/CarlaAir/releases
• Start with a smaller map and lower quality or actor counts if VRAM runs low or frame rates drop. — https://github.com/louiszengCN/CarlaAir/blob/main/CarlaAir_Release/guide/Quick-Start.md

Superseded by this¶

• 2026-03-24: v0.1.7 replaces v0.1.6 as the current release; update into a clean directory by rerunning setup rather than over an old install.
• 2026-04-16: Windows no longer lacks a prebuilt package; a Windows 11 x86_64 binary is available for v0.1.7.
• 2026-04-20: Basic ROS 2 visualization no longer requires building carla-ros-bridge from source; project examples use direct Python APIs and rclpy. The full bridge remains necessary only for its extra actions, services, and Ackermann control.

Still unknown¶

• Message text for 2026-04-03 is unavailable; the repository link alone does not prove a release or a specific change on that date.
• Primary sources checked provide no dated fact that ties directly to the 2026-04-03 event.

Sources¶

Agent brief¶

• Subject: project:carla-air, thread carla-air-release, 1 dated events 2026-04-03 → 2026-04-03.
• Practical note: As of 2026-04-03, practitioners can use the linked GitHub repository as a candidate source for CARLA-Air, while verifying its contents and relevance before relying on it.
• Confidence: medium. Dated supersedes above are the authority for what is obsolete.