Subsidiary Eurovia is already using the unmanned aerial vehicles in quarries to carry out topographic surveys and measure reserves and storage volumes. The drones enable an increase in the frequency of assessments of progress and physical stocks at production sites. They also ensure greater safety for the teams, since they can be used to carry out measurements in areas that are otherwise difficult to access.
Nymphea - part of Vinci Construction - also operates marine drones, which operate several surveillance and measuring systems. The lightweight remote survey vehicle incorporates navigation, communication and data acquisition tools in waterproof portable modules and is used to work on all types of sites and to transmit data instantaneously over distances that can exceed 5km.
At Vinci Energies, Omexom uses drones on its power line sites during high voltage maintenance work. Drones are employed to observe the condition of towers and insulator chains, providing a less costly initial visual assessment that also generates productivity gains, improves site preparation and enhance safety by identifying high-risk areas.
As well as standard high-definition cameras, drones can be equipped with thermal imaging equipment to help determine the condition of high-rise buildings and perform thermal audits.
Vinci Construction also regularly uses drones to supplement helicopters in producing project photography and videos.
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 online.
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