When walking through the Japanese exhibits at CES 2025, it was difficult to miss the huge black spherical drone aircraft HAGAMOSphere that was prominently positioned as if demanding the passerby’s respect. And respect it deserved, for this drone prototype was one of this year’s CES Innovation Award recipients recognized for outstanding design and engineering in consumer technology. HAGAMOSphere’s innovation is its distinct ability to move both horizontally and vertically without tilting the aircraft. If the HAGAMOSphere is outfitted with a suitable camera, jerky movements in captured drone footage could potentially be eliminated or mitigated.

Inside the spherical plastic exoskeleton is the innovative cubic frame that diagonally mounts eight propellers to allow omnidirectional maneuver while automatically maintaining balance by a unique control algorithm. As a result, HAGAMOSphere has exceptional flying stability and makes smoother turns than current state-of-art aerial drones.

In addition, thanks to the spherical casing, it can roll on the ground and move stably fast by itself, too. Unfortunately, because the CES exhibit space does not allow, we did not see a live demonstration of HAGAMOSphere flying or rolling, and have to watch related footage on prerecorded video.

Surprisingly, HAGAMOSphere is made by the over 100-year-old Japanese chemical manufacturer DIC Corporation that is known for color printing inks and synthetic resins. This radical drone design is an outcome of DIC’s R&D initiatives to seek new pivots from its traditional portfolio of products.

DIC President and CEO Takashi Ikeda told us that the company is actively exploring new usage scenarios for this concept model that is expected for mass production next year.

Since DIC designs and makes each granular component of HAGAMOSphere, Ikeda indicates they could even produce customized plastic casing to support equipping the drone with specific cameras for filmmaking.