Roof repair drone

Abstract

An aerial drone for repairing holes or punctures in a membrane on a roof, wherein the aerial drone includes at least one camera for recording a section of the membrane, a 3D printer adapted to print onto the section of the membrane, wherein the 3D printer is controllable wirelessly from a different altitude and/or the ground.

1 . An aerial drone for repairing holes or punctures in a membrane on a roof, wherein
 the aerial drone comprises
 at least one camera for recording a section of the membrane, 
 a 3D printer adapted to print onto the section of the membrane, wherein the 3D printer is controllable wirelessly from a different altitude and/or the ground. 
   
     
     
         2 . The aerial drone according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the aerial drone comprises at least one on-board communication unit, wherein the at least one on-board communication unit is adapted to wirelessly receive commands for the 3D printer from a ground based communication unit and/or to transfer the commands to the 3D printer and/or wherein the at least one on-board communication unit is adapted to receive recordings from the at least one camera and to wirelessly send the recordings to a ground based communication unit   
     
     
         3 . The aerial drone according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the 3D printer is a fused deposition modeling 3D printer, which is controlled wirelessly from a different altitude and/or the ground.   
     
     
         4 . The aerial drone according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the aerial drone comprises printing material.   
     
     
         5 . The aerial drone according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the aerial drone comprises printing material containing polyvinyl chloride and/or polyurethane.   
     
     
         6 . The aerial drone according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the aerial drone has a weight of 1 kg to 25 kg and/or the aerial drone comprises at least one battery unit with a sum of electric charge of 14000 mAh to 30000 mAh for providing power to at least one motor of the drone.   
     
     
         7 . The aerial drone according to  claim 2 , wherein
 the at least one on-board communication unit is one single-board computer and the sum of the weight of the single-board computer and of all cameras for recording the section of the membrane is 1 g to 300 g.   
     
     
         8 . A system for repairing holes or punctures in a membrane on a roof, wherein
 the system comprises
 an aerial drone according to  claim 1 , and 
 a ground based communication unit adapted to wirelessly send commands for the 3D printer to the on-board communication unit of the aerial drone and/or adapted to wirelessly receive recordings from the at least one camera via the on-board communication unit, 
   wherein the on-board communication unit and the ground based communication unit are connected by a wireless network.   
     
     
         9 . The system according to  claim 8 , wherein
 the wireless network is a wireless hotspot generated by a smart phone.   
     
     
         10 . A method for repairing holes or punctures in a membrane on a roof comprising the steps:
 detecting at least one hole or puncture in a section of the membrane on the roof;   recording at least the section of the membrane with at least one camera of an aerial drone according to  claim 1 ;   landing the aerial drone on the membrane on the roof such that the 3D printer of the aerial drone can print onto the section of the membrane, in particular onto at least one hole or puncture;   printing onto the section of the membrane.   
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 10 , comprising
 at a ground based communication unit wirelessly receiving recordings of at least the section of the membrane from at least one camera and sending commands for the 3D printer to the 3D printer via at least one on-board communication unit of the aerial drone.   
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 11 , comprising
 setting up a wireless network between the on-board communication unit and the ground based communication unit.   
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 10 , wherein
 the temperature of a hot end of the 3D printer is set to 190° C. to 300° C. during printing.   
     
     
         14 . The method according to  claim 10 , wherein
 the method is conducted by the aerial drone automatically or is controlled and/or supervised by a human operator at the ground based communication unit.   
     
     
         15 . The aerial drone according to  claim 1 , wherein
 the membrane on the roof contains polyvinyl chloride and/or polyurethane and/or thermoplastic olefin and/or the membrane on the roof is a liquid applied membrane.   
     
     
         16 . A system for repairing holes or punctures in a membrane on a roof, wherein
 the system comprises
 an aerial drone according to  claim 2 , and 
 a ground based communication unit adapted to wirelessly send commands for the 3D printer to the on-board communication unit of the aerial drone and/or adapted to wirelessly receive recordings from the at least one camera via the on-board communication unit, 
   wherein the on-board communication unit and the ground based communication unit are connected by a wireless network.   
     
     
         17 . The system according to  claim 8 , wherein
 the membrane on the roof contains polyvinyl chloride and/or polyurethane and/or thermoplastic olefin and/or the membrane on the roof is a liquid applied membrane.   
     
     
         18 . The method according to  claim 10 , wherein
 the membrane on the roof contains polyvinyl chloride and/or polyurethane and/or thermoplastic olefin and/or the membrane on the roof is a liquid applied membrane.