Autonomous Roofing

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are typically used for perception tasks such as surveillance, monitoring, and inspection. However, their use in physical manipulation tasks, such as roofing, has been relatively limited. Roofing is the fourth most dangerous job in the US with 51.5 fatalities per 100,000 workers. The use of automation has the potential to save lives and create significant value.

In this work [1], we demonstrated a proof of concept for using a nailgun-equipped octocopter to fasten pre-placed shingles to a roof. We used a DJI S1000 octocopter, an off-the-shelf nailgun, and necessary electronics to enable safe, tooltip compression based firing. An autonomous nailing sequence was developed using smooth trajectories designed to apply prescribed contact forces for reliable nail deployment. Experimental results showed success for roof slopes up to 30 degreees.

[1] M. Romano, Y. Chen, P. Kuevor, O. Marshall, and E. Atkins, “Nailed it: Autonomous roofing with a nailgun-equipped octocopter,” in AIAA AVIATION 2021 FORUM, p. 3211, 2021. Google Drive. ARC AIAA

This research was featured on the University of Michigan Engineering YouTube channel (below) and attracted significant attention. Additionally, several news outlets picked up the research including Gizmodo, TechCrunch, and VentureBeat.