Drones go to work for VINCI !

3 September 2014 - Events

The civilian use of drones has been increasing exponentially. For the time being, drones are primarily employed in video and photography applications, but the unmanned aerial vehicles are gradually being put to work as tools across VINCI's various business activities.

At Eurovia, drones are used in quarries to carry out topographic surveys and measure reserves and storage volumes. For example, Granulats Vicat uses drones to substantially increase the frequency of its assessments of progress and physical stocks at its production sites. Drones also ensure greater safety for the teams, since they can be used to carry out measurements in areas that are otherwise difficult to access.

At VINCI Energies, OMEXOM (the VINCI Energies Power & Grid brand) uses drones on its power line worksites. During HV and VHV power line maintenance work, drones are employed to observe the condition of towers and insulator chains. They provide a less costly initial visual assessment that improves the availability of structures for operators by reducing the frequency of outages, and they also generate productivity gains, improve worksite preparation and enhance safety by identifying high-risk areas.

Drones are equipped with high-definition cameras and thermal imaging cameras to help civil engineering and building specialists determine the condition of high-rise buildings and perform thermal audits.

VINCI Construction also regularly uses drones to supplement helicopters in photography and video production. On the SEA Tours Bordeaux HSL project, for example, 360° observation by drone has been introduced on the Ambarès-et-Lagrave and Dordogne Viaduct worksites. The results are accessible on the website.

Nymphea (VINCI Construction) also operates marine drones. Developed as an autonomous vehicle, the RSV operates several surveillance and measuring systems without standard nautical equipment (boats and crews). The lightweight remote survey vehicle incorporates navigation, communication and data acquisition tools in waterproof portable modules and is used to work efficiently on all types of sites, even the most difficult, and to transmit data instantaneously over distances that can exceed 5 km.

VINCI Autoroutes uses drones as part of an augmented reality demonstrator at a number of its rest and service areas. With the "Flash Takeoff" application, users can explore the region from a bird's eye view through interactive 360° images. The user simply flashes a QR code, available at each of the service areas, with a smartphone or tablet to "take off" and access the application on line.

In stadiums, the Allianz Riviera (VINCI Stadium) used drone video capability for the first time in France to capture an exciting view of a rugby match during the RC Toulon - Stade Français match, showing the surroundings of the stadium, the arrival of the two teams and even the Pilou-Pilou chant!