Lazurite Fly Is No Drone, But A Flying Paper Crane

[CEATEC 2015] Don’t you just love the way the Japanese do things? They have this tendency to ensure that is being manufactured will eventually rank somewhere among the best, if not the best, in its class, not to mention to present it in a refined manner. The art of origami that involves folding a piece of paper into really, really intricate designs is not lost on this unique CEATEC crowd puller – the Lazurite Fly. While there might be fancy drones in the market that offer Full HD or even 4K video recording capability, the Lazurite Fly takes a totally different approach, thanks to the use of the “Lazurite Sub-GHz” from Lapis semiconductor which has introduced what they deem to be the first ultra-energy-saving microcomputer board in the world that paves the way for communications on the 920MHz band.

In comparison to the Arduino board, power consumption is said to be reduced by approximately 90%, while allowing the Lazurite Fly to enjoy easy radio communications on the 920MHz band, which so happens to be a band that sports excellent energy saving characteristics that will surely do its part to enable long battery life in any kind of IoT prototyping ideas or creation of sensor nodes.

The Lazurite Fly itself is truly a marvel in engineering, as it sports a 5 minutes battery life where flight is concerned. The entire shebang tips the scales at just 31 grams – batteries and sensors included, and it used a 3D printed exoskeleton made out of nylon filament to give it shape, while being covered in paper to make sure it can take flight. The whole design required three months of refining and hard work before it is able to take to the skies, and eventually, the design will be disclosed online for the masses to make one for themselves.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Robots
Tags: CEATEC, ceatec 2015, lazurite fly, rohm