Somehow, Japan seems very obsessed with robots. The robots
come in various forms, not only the giant mecha robots that can be controlled
by humans just like the Kuratas. At the same time, Japan also takes advantage
of robots reliability to build the automated lettuce factory.
But it turns out that robot not always gets a good
reputation in Japan. Take for example the drone, when the world is crazy about
the drone, Japan actually has some bad experiences with it. The worse was when
the roof of Japanese Prime Minister's house was attacked by the drone which
carried radioactive sand, it's said that the drone was controlled by a
demonstrator from distance.
Therefore, a company named Lapis Semiconductor wants to
minimize the bad impression of drone and also to promote its latest innovation.
The company introduces a drone named Orizuru. The term of ‘Orizuru’ refers to
the paper crane which's very popular in the origami classes.
Orizuru form doesn't resemble the regular drone. The way of
flying is not relying on the propellers, but rather a pair of wings that will
flap just like a real bird. The frame is made of nylon that's resulted from the
3D printing, and then covered with the paper layer.
The secret behind the Orizuru's flying ability is a
microcomputer called Lazurite Fly. This is actually that's going to be promoted
by Lapis Semiconductor. Compared to similar products such as Arduino, Lazurite
Fly is claimed about 90 percent more efficient in energy consumption, and its
size is not much different from an SD card, and weighs only 31 grams.
Lazurite Fly also brings wireless communication technology.
Orizuru can be controlled from a distance like drones in general.
Interestingly, in the future the design of Orizuru will be released to the
public so that consumers can assemble the paper crane by themselves, and then
embed the electronic components to make it fly.