Robots and drones can do many thing for us already.University of Michigan engineers attached a nail gun to an autonomous DJI S1000 octocopter and demonstrated that it can successfully tack a shingle onto a roof.
source/image: Michigan Engineering
The nailgun was modified to allow triggering from the vehicle. A mount was designed to adjust the angle to match roof slope.Currently the drone is also free flying and uses an electric nail gun; this limits its flight time to about 10 minutes and a few dozen nails.
To turn the drone from one that simply carries a nail gun to one that uses it to secure roof shingles, the team set up a system of cameras and markers, A series of external cameras and onboard sensors help the drone find exactly where it is in the environment, and determine where the nails should go.
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Experimental results showed that the system is capable of nailing within a required three centimeter gap on the shingle. Extensions to achieve a complete autonomous roofing system are discussed as future work.
